“There are a lot of MAGA Republicans for whom no amount of gun violence… will ever, ever convince them to take any action,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Less than two weeks after a white supremacist gunned down 10 Black people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked legislation aimed at combating domestic terrorism in the United States—specifically the growing threat posed by neo-Nazis and white nationalists.
The final vote on the House-passed legislation was 47-47, with every Senate Republican in attendance voting no. At least 60 yes votes were needed to overcome the filibuster and advance to a final vote on the bill.
Every Senate Democrat who cast a vote supported the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, which proposed ensuring that federal agencies have the resources needed to detect and prevent “acts of domestic terrorism and white supremacist and neo-Nazi infiltration of law enforcement and corrections agencies.”
Last year, the head of the FBI—an agency that has long been criticized for ignoring rising white supremacist violence—told Congress that white supremacists comprise “the biggest chunk of our domestic […]