Tom Cotton Reads Past Speeches From Chuck Schumer Lobbying In Favor of the Filibuster on Senate Floor

U.S. Sen Tom Cotton (R-AR) spoke on the Senate floor today and read past speeches from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) lobbying in favor of the filibuster.

Cotton read the speech as Schumer is leading the charge in the Senate this week to change the chamber rules to pass sweeping voting rights legislation with a simple majority vote.

When he began reading the speech, Cotton did not make it clear that he was, in fact, reading 2005 speeches from Schumer, when Republicans were using the nuclear option on judicial appointments.

“Right now we are on the precipice of a Constitutional crisis, we are about to step into the abyss. I want to talk for a few minutes why we are on that precipice of the abyss,” Cotton stated.

Cotton continued, “Let me first ask a fundamental question: What is the crisis that calls for the undoing of two centuries of tradition?”

“Bottom line is very simple: The ideologues in the Senate want to turn what the Founding Fathers called ‘the cooling saucer of democracy’ into the rubber stamp of dictatorship. We will not let them,” Cotton later declared.

Cotton also said, “They want to make this country into a banana republic, where if you don’t get your way, you change the rules. Are we going to let them? It’ll be a doomsday for democracy if we do.”

After reading the portion of the speeches that were from Schumer, Cotton explained that they were from him and that he “spoke so eloquently” in defense of the tradition.

Cotton also displayed a picture of Schumer and accused him of “singing a different tune today.”

🚨 BREAKING: Chuck Schumer* speaks on the Senate floor in defense of the filibuster.

*Senator Cotton’s speech consisted entirely of Senator Schumer’s past statements. pic.twitter.com/zGfbpr7G5t

— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) January 12, 2022