Tag: chuck schumer

Sen. Chuck Schumer Boasts Biden-Appointed Judges Will Be ‘Strongest’ Obstacle Blocking Trump’s Plan to Make America Great Again

“I don’t know exactly what [Trump will] do. But I can tell you this: The judiciary will be one of our strongest — if not our strongest — barrier against what he does,” current Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told Politico last week about his plan to thwart President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda.

Insisting to his senators that making federal judgeships a priority would help protect the legislation Democrats have passed during their last four years in power, Schumer touted, “We got 235 — more than a quarter of the federal judiciary was appointed by our Senate and by the president,” and “more than Trump had done” during his first administration.

Schumer’s words also came days after Joe Biden vetoed a bill that would have added 66 federal judgeships, a goal that proponents said would relieve the significant delays in resolving some cases.

Biden said the bill was a “hurried action” that “seeks to hastily add judgeships with just a few weeks left in the 118th Congress.”

The Associated Press (AP) described the bipartisan nature of the bill:

The legislation would have spread the establishment of the new trial court judgeships over more than a decade to give three presidential administrations and six Congresses the chance to appoint the new judges. The bipartisan effort was carefully designed so that lawmakers would not knowingly give an advantage to either political party in shaping the federal judiciary.

“The Democratic-controlled Senate passed the measure unanimously in August,” AP added. “But the Republican-led House brought it to the floor only after Republican Donald Trump was reelected to a second term in November, adding the veneer of political gamesmanship to the process.”

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GOP Leaders Blocked Schumer’s Push To Include Marijuana Banking Reform In Government Funding Bill, Senate Source Says

Republican House and Senate leadership “openly and solely blocked” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) attempt to include bipartisan marijuana banking legislation in a government funding bill, a Senate source familiar with the negotiations tells Marijuana Moment.

As bicameral lawmakers have worked to put together a continuing resolution to keep the government funded, Schumer repeatedly urged colleagues across the aisle to incorporate the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act, to no avail. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) killed that prospective deal, the source said.

“Schumer pushed for SAFER Banking at the negotiation table in the CR multiple times. This week, both Speaker Johnson and Leader McConnell strongly rejected it,” they said. “For years some Republicans have done a dance telling marijuana businesses that they supported SAFER, while Republican leadership has openly and solely blocked it at every turn.”

Marijuana Moment reached out to Johnson’s and McConnell’s offices for comment, but representatives were not immediately available.

The majority leader said following the election that he remained committed to moving the SAFER Banking Act during the lame duck session, and that he was eyeing the must-pass stopgap funding legislation to get that done.

Schumer could in theory still put the cannabis banking bill on the floor for Senate consideration as a standalone measure. But even if it did pass with the steep 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster in the chamber, the thinking is that it wouldn’t be worth the effort considering Johnson’s obstinance and unlikeliness to bring it to a vote in the House, the Senate source said.

Last month, Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), the GOP lead sponsor of the SAFER Banking Act, told Politico that he wanted to see the measure “get done before the end of the year.” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) separately said he’s “hoping to get something done” on cannabis banking through the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), but that prospect is similarly in doubt.

Notably, a Republican senator, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), told AskAPol that he considers the SAFER Banking Act a “half-assed” measure that should simply be incorporated into legislation to create a comprehensive federal regulatory framework for marijuana.

Getting the banking reform enacted during the lame duck could be pivotal following last month’s election that put Republicans back in the Senate majority at the same time that they held onto the House. Sen. John Thune (R-SD) was elected by his peers to serve as majority leader, and he’s opposed to the cannabis banking bill, further complicating its pathway to passage under the next Congress.

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Chuck Schumer labeled ‘traitor’ after damning report reveals he quietly advised Columbia leaders to ignore criticism of campus antisemitism

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is being slammed as a traitor following damning claims he instructed administrators at Columbia University to dismiss any criticism of the school’s handling of blatant violence and antisemitism on campus in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel.

The GOP-lead House Education and Workforce Committee, in a 325-page report, contended the New York Democrat advised then-university president Minouche Shafik that the school would be spared any scrutiny by Democrats, explaining that the elite university’s “political problems are really only among Republicans.”

His staff then encouraged Columbia administrators that the “best strategy is to keep heads down,” according to the report.

“The self-proclaimed protector of the Jewish people. Chuckey Schumer is nothing but a kapo traitor. He should be ashamed of himself,” said former Brooklyn state Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Democrat-turned-Republican who heads the group Americans Against Antisemitism.

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Why Chuck Schumer Should be Removed from the Senate for his Usurpation of Power

With each passing day, our Nation is declining into a state of where civilization is no longer sustainable. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has introduced legislation seeking to strip Donald Trump of any immunity for his definition of a criminal action, in a blatant usurpation of power where he seeks to reverse the Supreme Court’s landmark decision on Trump’s Immunity calling this the “No Kings Act” where he has asserted the unconstitutional attempt to strip[ the Supreme Court completely stating that ONLY Congress, not the Supreme Court, determines to whom federal criminal law is applied.

Schumer had better study law if he wants to pretend to be outraged over the Supreme Court’s Immunity decision regarding Trump. He would NEVER say a word if it was concerning Biden. People like Schumer are destroying the United States with their Marxist agenda. He should look at the immunity that senators and representatives have as laid out in Article I that they are “privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.” The Founding Fathers put that in the Constitution, for they knew that people like Schumer would pull every trick to manipulate the country back then. Yet, all we hear is that Trump should be prosecuted for his speech on January 6th.

Schumer is a complete hypocrite, and I find it really offensive the antics he constantly pulls that are dividing the country. He should also look at the fact that the Attorney General is ABSOLUTELY IMMUNE even if he recklessly indicts Trump or if a prosecutor brings charges against you, even for personal reasons. The Supreme Court previously held

“A state prosecuting attorney who, as here, acted within the scope of his duties in initiating and pursuing a criminal prosecution and in presenting the State’s case, is absolutely immune from a civil suit for damages under § 1983 for alleged deprivations of the accused’s constitutional rights.”

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Schumer Fails To Muster Applause As He Endorses Harris

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer held a cringe press conference in order to endorse Kamala Harris as the new Democratic nominee, but literally no one cared.

Schumer expected people to start clapping when he announced “We are here today to throw our support behind VP Kamala Harris!”

When there was just silence, Schumer awkwardly stated “I’m clapping! You don’t have to.”

Oof.

When he was asked to explain how exactly this process of binning Biden and getting Harris on the ticket is Democratic, Schumer bizarrely stated “The bottom line: It was a bottom-up process. People just rallied right to her side! The enthusiasm in this big, diverse, representative party was amazing! It was palpable; you could cut it with a knife!”

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Schumer Seeks Bill to Ban Bump Stocks After Supreme Court Ruling

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on June 14 called for legislation to outlaw bump stocks after the Supreme Court struck down a President Donald Trump-era ban on the gun accessory.

A 6–3 opinion by the high court found that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) exceeded its authority when it interpreted a federal firearms statute to outlaw the use of bump stocks. Bump stocks are attached to the butt end of a rifle, causing them to fire again by bumping against the finger on recoil.

“As I warned the Trump administration at the time, the only way to permanently close this loophole is through legislation. Senate Democrats are ready to pass legislation to ban bump stocks but we will need votes from Senate Republicans,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement.

The ATF in 2018, with the support of President Trump, reversed its earlier position and declared bump stocks illegal in response to the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, in which a gunman used firearms equipped with bump stocks to fire multiple guns more rapidly, killing 60 and leaving hundreds wounded.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito filed a concurrence on June 14 that emphasized Congress’s role. “There is a simple remedy for the disparate treatment of bump stocks and machineguns,” he said. “Congress can amend the law—and perhaps would have done so already if ATF had stuck with its earlier interpretation. Now that the situation is clear, Congress can act.”

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee,called the Supreme Court decision “deeply disappointing.” 

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Johnson and Schumer Invite War Criminal and Mass Murderer To Address Congress

Mark this most recent event as yet another piece of evidence that Israel literally owns the U.S. Congress.

From Politico:

Netanyahu accepts Congress’ invitation to speak despite blowback.

Tensions have been mounting in recent weeks after Speaker Mike Johnson announced his plan to invite Netanyahu to address Congress

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday accepted an invitation from congressional leaders to address a joint session, a decision that has sparked tension within the Democratic Party over Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.

In a post to X, formerly known as Twitter, Netanyahu wrote that he was looking forward to the opportunity to “present the truth” to Congress about the “just war” that Israel has been waging in Gaza since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, when 1,200 Israelis were killed and 240 others were taken hostage. In the months following Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip, at least 35,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Palestinian health authorities, while millions of others have fled from their homes.

“I am very moved to have the privilege of representing Israel before both Houses of Congress and to present the truth about our just war against those who seek to destroy us to the representatives of the American people and the entire world,” Netanyahu wrote.

Tensions have been mounting in recent weeks after Speaker Mike Johnson announced his plan to invite Netanyahu to address Congress. The Democratic Party has splintered over U.S. support for Israel in its ongoing war in Gaza, particularly after recent strikes in a designated safe zone for Palestinians in the southern city of Rafah that reportedly killed at least 45 people.

Progressives, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has been outspoken in his disapproval of U.S. military support for Israel’s war, denounced the invitation.

“Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal. He should not be invited to address a joint meeting of Congress. I certainly will not attend,” Sanders wrote in a post to X.

Sanders also referenced the International Criminal Court’s seeking arrest warrants for both Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar for alleged war crimes committed on both sides.

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Chuck Schumer’s Brother Works For Law Firm Behind Bragg’s Get-Trump Indictment

Following Donald Trump’s conviction in Manhattan last week, Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer proclaimed, “The undeniable fact is Donald Trump went through the same legal process that all Americans go through, he was tried according to the facts and the law, and he was found guilty by a jury of his peers.” 

Nothing could be further from the truth, and Schumer knows it because his brother’s law firm, branded the “Biden-Era N.Y. Power Center” by Bloomberg, spurred the indictment of the former president.

Sen. Schumer’s brother, Robert Schumer, is a partner in that law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, and Garrison. As I detailed Monday, Paul, Weiss granted three highly paid attorneys leaves of absence to join the Manhattan district attorney’s office in its targeting of Donald Trump. And Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of the former president came about only after the intentional leaking of a resignation letter from Mark Pomerantz, one of the Paul, Weiss attorneys on loan to the DA. 

In his resignation letter, Pomerantz criticized Bragg for failing to seek criminal charges against Trump and for indefinitely suspending the investigation into the former president. The letter was soon provided to The New York Times, creating a political firestorm over the news that Bragg did not intend to charge Trump.

Pomerantz’s ploy worked: Bragg soon publicly claimed the investigation was ongoing and then moved to “jump start” his investigation into Trump by hiring yet another outsider, Matthew Colangelo.

Colangelo left Biden’s Department of Justice to join Bragg’s get-Trump team, having previously been appointed by Biden as acting associate attorney general — the third-highest-ranking official in the DOJ. Following Colangelo’s arrival, Bragg indicted Trump, resulting in last week’s conviction.

This road to Trump’s conviction isn’t even in the same universe as the “legal process that all Americans go through.” In fact, the Manhattan DA scoring a top criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor on leave of absence from Paul, Weiss to work “solely on the Trump investigation” was so out of the ordinary that even The New York Times acknowledged that “the hiring of an outsider is a highly unusual move for a prosecutor’s office.” 

Even more unusual, though, was Pomerantz’s resignation letter that declared, “I believe that Donald Trump is guilty of numerous felony violations of the Penal Law in connection with the preparation and use of his annual Statements of Financial Condition” — accusations soon leaked to The New York Times, which led to a Biden administration lawyer leaving the DOJ to work on a state court prosecution. This is most assuredly not business as usual in the criminal justice system.

Sen. Schumer undoubtedly knows this and Paul, Weiss’s connections to the Manhattan DA’s prosecution of Donald Trump because his brother is a partner at the firm. And so does Joe Biden, who during a June 2019 fundraiser at Paul, Weiss gave a “shoutout” to Robert Schumer. 

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Chuck Schumer Attacks Lifesaving Zyn Nicotine Pouches

Less than three months after launching an attack on energy drinks, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.) has a new target: Zyn nicotine pouches.

In a press release Sunday, Schumer labeled Zyn a “quiet and dangerous” alternative to vaping, claiming that with the decline in smoking, tobacco companies are adapting by focusing on new products like oral nicotine. Zyns are small pouches of nicotine meant to be placed between the lips and gums. Two strengths of the product are available at three and six milligrams of nicotine, and they come in several flavors.

Schumer’s ire appears to have been raised by the rapid growth in sales of nicotine pouches and so-called “Zynfluecers” on TikTok promoting the product. Schumer fears nicotine pouches could become a teen trend, as vaping did in 2019 before rapidly declining as the tobacco age was raised to 21 and schools became more aware of the problem. To head off a potential increase in youth nicotine addiction, Schumer wants the Federal Trade Commission and the Food and Drug Administration to investigate the marketing of Zyn and potentially restrict their flavors.

But Schumer’s framing has the story backward. Zyn is not a dangerous alternative to vaping but a dramatically safer alternative to smoking. One of the reasons smoking has declined substantially over the last decade is because safer nicotine alternatives like vapes and Zyn are switching smokers away from cigarettes. The closest equivalent for which we have decades of data is an oral smokeless tobacco called snus. Snus is most prevalent in Sweden, and not coincidentally, Sweden has the lowest smoking and lung cancer rates in Europe because those interested in using nicotine do so in a much safer form.

Schumer is right that nicotine pouches are enjoying enormous sales, but he would be wrong to assume nicotine-naive youth are driving these sales. According to the National Youth Tobacco Survey, only 1.5 percent of middle and high schoolers use nicotine pouches, and just 2.3 percent have ever tried a nicotine pouch. Even among the minority of young people who use products like Zyn, most are not nicotine newbies. A study of adolescents and adults aged 15-24 who used nicotine pouches found the vast majority were smokers or had smoked cigarettes in the past at 73 percent and 81 percent, respectively. Just like with e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches disproportionately appeal to people who are already using nicotine most often in its most dangerous form, which is cigarettes.

Schumer’s concern that Zyn comes in several flavors like cinnamon and citrus is also misguided. For one, Zyn has already applied to the FDA to be authorized for sale, and the agency will determine whether it presents a net benefit to public health. But suppose flavors in nicotine products are inherently youth-appealing, as Schumer suggests. In that case, he should be just as outraged that nicotine gums, which have been around for decades, are sold in flavors like “cinnamon surge,” “fruit chill,” and “spearmint burst.” Nicotine flavor bans have a poor track record in improving public health, with bans on flavored vapes associated with an increase in cigarette sales.

Schumer’s intervention drew mockery on X (formerly known as Twitter), including from Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators defending Zyn. The reaction is perhaps unsurprising, given that Tucker Carlson is the most famous Zyn consumer.

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Video shows suspect accused of operating secret Chinese police stations mingling with Schumer, Adams

One of the two men accused by federal prosecutors of running a secret Chinese police station in New York City purportedly has been captured on video attending an event alongside two prominent Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and New York City Mayor Eric Adams. 

Video recorded on March 18 appears to show Lu Jianwang standing alongside Adams most recently at an event where Schumer also spoke. Lu was arrested last week and charged with conspiring to act as an agent of China’s government, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. 

In a statement, Adams’ office told Fox News that the mayor’s attendance at an event is either to show support for a local community or the city and does not signal any kind of endorsement. 

A spokesperson for Adams also said he does not know Lu. 

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