U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) this week criticized progressives in Congress and said that their actions on the federal infrastructure bill could send former U.S. President Donald Trump back to the White House in 2024.
Cohen made his remarks on CNN.
The network asked Cohen if progressives’ attempts to block a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill could impact Democrats in the 2022 mid-term elections.
“If we don’t get behind this bill and give the American public an infrastructure bill that they’d like to have and pass this bill back better then we are ruining Biden’s agenda, and if we don’t show that we can govern we are risking our majority in 2022. We are risking our democracy in 2024 because if Joe Biden or the Democratic nominee in 2024 loses — and they easily could because of failure to accomplish things in this Congress — then we could have a Trump presidency [again],” Cohen told the network.
“That, in my opinion, would be the end of democracy in this country, and the vengeance tour would not be something that the Constitution forefathers looked towards. I don’t want to suggest that the progressives are wrong. They have good attitudes and good instincts and good goals. But they haven’t been legislators for a very long time. A lot of them have been activists and tried to get things in other ways. I have been a legislator for 44 years. My car is older than quite a few of the progressives. Experience teaches you. You have got to get things done for the American people and it takes compromise. I am willing to do it, and I am a progressive with a capital P.”
Cohen last month politicized the U.S. Supreme Court. Cohen was angry about the U.S. Supreme Court not blocking a Texas law restricting abortion access from going into effect.
“Senators who stole a seat and jammed the Supreme Court with three Trump appointees are responsible for the attack on reproductive freedom and should be ashamed. With this Supreme Court, #Roe is on life support. Women must have a choice concerning their own bodies,” Cohen wrote in one tweet.
Cohen, in another tweet, demanded U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer resign.
“Esteemed Justice Breyer needs to announce retirement so Biden can name his replacement while Dems still have majority in Senate. And Chief Justice Roberts doesn’t influence the Trump/far right faction This is what we learned from Courts failure to protect Roe/women in Texas case,” Cohen wrote.
Cohen, in another tweet, said it’s time to “expand the court.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
