Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) continues to criticize the legislative filibuster as a disgrace, even though she has benefited from it numerous times since she was first elected to office.
On Monday, Warren tweeted: “Last time I read the Constitution, it’s majority rule in both chambers of Congress. And it’s only the president of the United States who gets a veto—not the minority leader of the United States Senate.”
Predictably, her tweet was met with mockery, as numerous people pointed out she needed to read the Constitution again since the Senate is explicitly allowed to determine its own rules for its proceedings.
Beyond Warren’s incorrect statement, her claim is also hypocritical, since she and fellow Democrats used the filibuster when Republicans had control of the Senate for the past six years. According to David Harsanyi, a senior writer at National Review, Warren has participated in some 300 or more filibusters over the past five years.
Warren’s use of the filibuster has come under scrutiny in the past, as well. In March, she claimed: “The filibuster has deep roots in racism, and it should not be permitted to serve that function or to create a veto for the minority. In a democracy, its majority rules.”
As The Daily Wire’s Ian Haworth reported at the time, questions arose as to whether Warren’s claim meant she herself was racist for using the filibuster to block police reform legislation from Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), a black Republican. From Haworth:
In June 2020, Warren used the rule while the Democratic Party were in the minority in the U.S. Senate. Not only that, she used the supposedly “racist” rule against Sen. Tim Scott, a black Republican.
“Last June, Democratic lawmakers in the Senate voted to block police reform legislation put forward by Republican Sen. Tim Scott in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death. The legislation failed to surpass the 60-vote threshold assigned by the filibuster. Only three Democrats in chamber voted to advance the bill, and Warren was not one of them,” reported The Blaze.
Earlier this week, CNN’s Scott Jennings mocked Warren for her description of the Senate filibuster as “racist,” saying that Warren “filibustered [Tim Scott]’s police reform bill just last year,” and asking “was it racist then?”
As Haworth reported, Warren also used the filibuster to block the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which, as the name implied, would mandate that doctors provide medical care for babies that survived an abortion attempt.
Warren, Haworth noted, also filibustered billions of dollars in COVID-19 relief while President Donald Trump was still in office, joining 46 other senators in blocking the bill from a vote.
As Haworth editorialized:
Elizabeth Warren’s attitude towards the filibuster is perfectly aligned with the Democratic Party’s attitude towards every element of American government.
If it can be used to their advantage, then opposing it is evidence of racism. If it can be used against them, then supporting it is evidence of racism. If it can be used both to their advantage and against them, depending on the context, then it is simply a matter of choosing the right time to launch the legislative attack.
With Democrats holding an effective majority in the U.S. Senate, it seems this time has come.