Tina Smith

And meanwhile, the powers of the Senate and the powers of the legislative branch are, I mean, they're gushing out of the Capitol.

And it's not just the Senate.

I mean, what the speaker did to keep the U.S.

House of Representatives out of session for how many days was it?

You know, seven weeks was really an incredible abdication of responsibility and authority.

So it's interesting to me because I'm always so fascinated by the interpersonal relationships of everybody in the Senate.

And the people that I see that seem to feel the most betrayed right now are my Democratic colleagues who stake their careers on working across party lines.

They were part of the gangs.

They were in the, you know, so much of the work that you did, Joe, around the Infrastructure Act.

And they feel as if the bonds of trust between Democrats and Republicans have been so broken because of the ways in which Republicans in the Senate have just basically kowtowed to the president, not only on infrastructure.

You know, on the fact of basically allowing him to undo our budget bills.

But, I mean, on the ways that they've kind of confirmed against their better judgment, I would argue, some of these really terrible nominees like RFK Jr.

and like the Secretary of Defense.

Right.

Part of the problem, I believe, this is where I think Joe and I differ.

Maybe I differ from both of my colleagues here.

I think that the Senate rules have so completely stymied the ability of the Senate to do anything.

And I'm not just talking about the filibuster.

I think there's got to be a way of figuring out how to make the systems of the Senate work better.

Because you'd like to get...