Tag: Cory Gardner

The Story: It appears at this writing that the control of the US Senate will remain in Republican hands when the new members are inaugurated...

The Story: On Tuesday, June 30, Democratic Party voters in Colorado selected a former Governor, and former Presidential candidate, John Hickenlooper to run for the...

Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, on Wednesday in Washington. Tom Brenner for The New York Times WASHINGTON — For weeks, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, has remained conspicuously on the sidelines, insisting that it was up to President Trump and Democrats to negotiate an end to the partial shutdown of the federal government. But with the shutdown soon to enter its third week, and Mr. Trump dug in on his demand for $5 billion to build a border wall, Mr. McConnell for the first time is facing pressure from members of his own party to step in to resolve the stalemate that has left 800,000 federal workers either furloughed or working without pay. Much as Democrats did in 2018, Republicans will face a difficult map in 2020, with a handful of incumbent senators facing re-election in swing states or states won by Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race. But on Thursday, as a new era of divided government opened in Washington, perhaps the most vulnerable Republican, Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado, broke ranks to become the first member of his party to call for an end to the shutdown — with or without Mr. Trump’s wall funding. “I think we should pass a continuing resolution to get the government back open,” Mr. Gardner, whose state has a heavy federal presence, told The Hill newspaper. “The Senate has done it last Congress, we should do it again today.” A second vulnerable Republican, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, one of the chamber’s most moderate members, said Thursday that she would support separating homeland security funding from the other bipartisan appropriations bills already approved in committee to reopen much of the government — as Democrats have proposed. Let’s not get off on the wrong foot, with House Democrats using their new platform to produce political statements rather than serious solutions.” After two years of trying to advance Mr. Trump’s agenda, Mr. McConnell now sees his primary job as standing in the way of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who vowed in her inaugural speech on Thursday to “reach across the aisle in this chamber,” but who is also poised to pass legislation on a bevy of liberal priorities, including gun restrictions and protections for young undocumented immigrants. “For Trump and McConnell, there’s a lot of good politics for that — particularly for McConnell in Kentucky.” Democrats are trying to drive a wedge between Republican leaders and their vulnerable incumbents up for re-election in 2020, especially Mr. Gardner, Ms. Collins, Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Senator Martha McSally of Arizona, who was appointed to fill the seat left vacant after Senator John McCain’s death. “He’s seen this situation many times before and knows where the leverage points are,” Mr. Holmes said.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s three big policy proposals may be gaining momentum in the House. But could the marijuana reform bill she introduced earlier this year actually pass in the Senate? And he’s trying to make it happen this week. “The votes are there,” Gardner told Bloomberg in an interview Monday. Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO) discusses his bill that would allow banking for the marijuana industry https://t.co/1JMHPdAEto pic.twitter.com/MSHjjlQt0u — Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) December 17, 2018 The STATES Act, which Warren and Gardner introduced in June, would amend the Controlled Substances Act so that the federal prohibition on marijuana does not apply in states that have legalized the drug, like Colorado and Massachusetts. According to The Denver Post, Gardner’s plan is to introduce the bill as an amendment to the federal criminal justice reform bill that the Senate plans to debate Monday night. Gardner told the Post that introducing the STATES Act as an amendment to the criminal justice bill is “by far and away the best shot” to advance his and Warren’s own bipartisan cause. “I can’t think of a more appropriate piece of legislation than this bill to try as an amendment to,” he said adding that “the president supports this legislation, and in its purest form [the STATES Act] is sentencing reform.” The STATES Act has picked up a total of 10 co-sponsors in the Senate since it was introduced — five Democrats and five Republicans. Gardner says it also has the support to pass a simple-majority vote in the chamber. Trump said in June that he “really” supports Gardner and “probably will end up supporting” the STATES Act.

Lots of people got riled up over Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings, and party leaders now are branding opponents as "mobs" gone mad, and worse. It's not likely to get better soon, with both parties straining for control of Congress on Election Day. A look at the "conversation": ___ Trump kicked off his presidential campaign in 2015 by saying many Mexicans are rapists and murderers. "You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about," she said on CNN. "That's why I believe, if we are fortunate enough to win back the House and/or the Senate, that's when civility can start again." Two years after Trump's victory, she notes, he still routinely brings her up, calling her "Crooked Hillary." "When you have the last presidential nominee for president saying incivility should continue until the Democrats win the House, for goodness sake, I think we know who the culprits are here when it comes to the quality of discourse in the country, and it's not coming from the Republican side of the aisle." But what about Trump? And, while Trump campaigns for Republican candidates, "I don't see all these Democratic candidates banging down Hillary Clinton's door asking her to lock arms."

WASHINGTON — With the U.S. Senate set to vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination Friday and Saturday, it’s still unclear whether he’ll be confirmed or defeated, although the expectation is that he’ll survive along (mostly) party lines. But one thing’s for sure: The votes will reverberate beyond this election season. Four GOP senators up for re-election in 2020 hail from states that will be top battlegrounds in the next presidential election — Sens. Gardner has been supportive of Judge Kavanaugh throughout the nomination. Nothing in the report changed his mind and he remains supportive of Judge Kavanaughs nomination.” Colorado, of course, is a state that Hillary Clinton won by 5 points in 2016. After that vote, which will last about 30 minutes, there will be up to 30 hours of debate on the nomination – equally divided between Republicans and Democrats – after which they will hold the final vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination. Kavanaugh in the Wall Street Journal: “I was very emotional last Thursday" Out of everything that happened during last Thursday’s Kavanaugh-Ford testimony on Capitol Hill, maybe the most striking was Kavanaugh’s partisan tone in his opening remarks. We said, unequivocally, that each of us, on numerous occasions, had seen Brett stumbling drunk to the point that it would be impossible for him to state with any degree of certainty that he remembered everything that he did when drunk.” But also writing in the Washington Post, Mark A. Perry – a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher who clerked with Kavanaugh at the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1990s – stands up for the nominee. “While I didn’t know Kavanaugh in high school, college or law school, I have known him for virtually all of his professional life — his time as a lawyer and judge, which led to his nomination to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court. These state elections are the most under-reported story in politics, with control of chambers likely tipping from Republicans to Democrats.”

Sens. Cory Gardner and Elizabeth Warren are teaming up on a bill that gives states the right to decide how to move forward on medical, recreational marijuana without breaking federal laws. Both senators join Morning Joe to discuss. » Subscribe…