Senator Schumer is scared of a primary challenge from far left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He is willing to go to any extreme to appease the radical fringes of the Democratic Party including blowing up the Senate to do so. A good example of this is talk of eliminating the legislative filibuster. Not only have Democrat Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin said they will not vote to repeal the legislative filibuster, but even liberal stalwarts such as Dianne Feinstein have hesitated to do it (she is now showing signs that she might cave to pressure after flip flopping on the issue literally overnight). As Republican Leader McConnell stated last week:

 “He is yielding to the pressure of the hard left to turn the Senate into a speedway, as opposed to a place where things are paused and thought over,” McConnell said during an interview with Fox News’s Harris Faulkner. . . .

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden signaled that he may be throwing his support behind the progressive movement to dismantle the filibuster in its current form. But even Democrats know that getting rid of the legislative filibuster would be a bad idea. . . As Politico reports: 

Two Democratic senators, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, are hard opponents of changes to the 60-vote threshold. But that duo's firm resistance is obscuring the size of another, bigger faction in the Democratic caucus — call them softer opponents of ending the filibuster.

Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell has always defended maintaining the legislative filibuster while Republicans were in both the majority and the minority. This is a bipartisan issue which even former-Senators Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have also supported. It should be noted the legislative filibuster is very different from the filibuster used on nominations which was mostly eliminated by then Senate Majority Leader Harry Ried in 2013.  (Senator McConnell ended it for Supreme Court nominees in 2017 when Democrats filibustered Justice Neil Gorsuch's nomination.)  

However, Sen. Chuck Schumer is flirting to remove this critical democratic process. McConnell is fighting to preserve the legislative filibuster which lets a senator extend debate and requires controversial bills to muster 60 votes to proceed to a final up-or-down vote.

For the first time since 2017, all of the seats on the Federal Election Commission are filled. Allen Dickerson, Sean Cooksey, and Shana Broussard were confirmed by the Senate earlier today. Dickerson and Cooksey are Republicans, while Broussard is a Democrat. Some may find it odd for a Republican President to appoint a Democrat, but no more than 3 of the 6 commissioners can be from the same political party. The votes for the Republican nominees were largely along party lines.

Judicial confirmations are continuing full speed ahead thanks to the leadership of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham. As reported by Carrie Severino for the National Review:

The Senate has recessed for Thanksgiving break, but not before processing a number of judicial nominees. Five new trial judges were confirmed last week, four to various district courts and one to the Court of International Trade.

In the face of calls to concede the presidential race, the RNC, President Trump, and his campaign are moving forward with litigation to ensure the integrity of the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

“We will not give up on this process until every last issue has been uncovered.” -@GOPChairwoman pic.twitter.com/7bTnntGH8W

— GOP (@GOP) November 9, 2020

Democrats shouldn't blame Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for “ruining” the Supreme Court nomination and confirmation process by not waiting until after the election. The truth is, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden broke the process long ago. . .

Biden is responsible for the single worst political trend in the last 35 years: the politicization of Supreme Court nominations.

Over 300 RNLA leaders, members, and friends have submitted a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in support of the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court. Judge Barrett's nomination has been voted out of the Judiciary Committee and is awaiting confirmation by the full Senate.

President Trump announced today that he will announce his nominee to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court created by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Saturday at 5:00pm:

I will be announcing my Supreme Court Nominee on Saturday, at the White House! Exact time TBA.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 22, 2020

NEWS: Trump says his announcement on his SCOTUS pick will be at 5p Saturday.

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) September 22, 2020

Today was likely one of the last “controversial” hearings for a judicial nominee for President Trump’s first term.  Judge Justin Walker was before the committee as a nominee to the DC Circuit.  However, much of the Democrats' potential fire was taken away before the hearing even started.  Yesterday, the American Bar Association (ABA), the self-proclaimed "gold standard" of Senate Democrats, rated Judge Walker "Well Qualified."  Judge Walker had previously been rated "not qualified" by the ABA, due to his being just short of the required number of post-law school years of experience.