WASHINGTON — How broken is the U.S. Senate? Lawmakers don’t even debate each other on the Senate floor anymore, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) pointed out Tuesday.
“It’s only one senator at a time, giving a speech,” the Delaware Democrat said, noting that most of the rabble-rousing Americans see is indeed for a television audience, as the chamber usually contains a senator or two along with their aides.
It’s staffers who could be key in breaking the partisan divide, Coons suggested to a group of reporters after an appearance at the Atlantic Festival in Washington.
“I have just, this morning, signed off on overseas trips for four of my staff because the people they will be traveling with are their correspondents in Republican offices,” Coons told The Post.
“That’s intentional. Right? Because I beat my head against the wall for a couple years having relationships with senators and then found that our staffs were like, ‘no, no, no, have a debate on the floor? No, we’re not doing that.’ Literally.”
Former Sen. Mark Kirk, a Republican from Illinois, had approached Coons several years ago and pitched the idea of a floor debate. “He said, why don’t we just do it? Why don’t we just pick an issue and debate each other on the floor,” Coons recalled. “I was like ‘great, good.’”
“It took six months,” Coons said.
“Our completely freaked out chiefs of staff made us do it once in rehearsal.”
Coons added that the topic wasn’t even controversial.
“We debated the balanced budget amendment,” he said and then added a dramatic mock yawn.
At the Festival, Coons appeared with Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). The two have been on a media blitz since Friday, after Coons convinced Flake to push for a brief FBI investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct plaguing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Several other swing vote senators joined Flake in holding up the vote.
“I just gave him the brief window to hear his conscience and say we shouldn’t do this without a minimally professional investigation into these allegations,” Coons said of his role. He said it was Flake who deserved “whatever kudos or credit there is” because “he’s the one who has deeply angered his caucus and caused great consternation to his majority leader.”
