While Kristi Noem’s Goons Were Attacking Sen. Alex Padilla, Senate Dems Were Helping Republicans Advance Corrupt Crypto Legislation.
Yesterday, Sen. Alex Padilla attended a press conference that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was holding in Los Angeles order to ask a question. Rather than answer the senator’s questions, Noem had security attack him and drag out of the room — the same violent approach that ICE agents have been using to harass residents of Los Angeles (and, indeed, across the country) used on a sitting US senator. It was a perfect encapsulation of just how extreme the Trump administration is, how authoritarian it is, how violent it is, and how disrespectful it is.
But, across the country, in the US Senate, many of Padilla’s colleagues were working with Republicans to advance corrupt legislation to benefit the cryptocurrency industry (indeed, unfortunately, Padilla had joined them the day prior).
David Dayen has had the best coverage of the GENIUS Act, the industry-backed bill to create a weak regulatory regime for cryptocurrency and sets us up for another financial crisis. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has been the bill’s most vocal opponent. As she said on the floor last month,
“It doesn’t have to be this way. A bill that meaningfully strengthens oversight of the stablecoin market is worth enacting. A bill that turbocharges the stablecoin market, while facilitating the President’s corruption and undermining national security, financial stability, and consumer protection is worse than no bill at all.”
The bill, notably, blesses the blatant corruption Trump has been engaging in via cryptocurency. Again, here’s Warren:
First, corruption. It is fitting that we are voting on the GENIUS Act just a few days before President Trump hosts a “private intimate dinner” and a VIP White House tour for the top investors in his meme coin–many of whom remain anonymous. Buyers, including some apparently foreign investors, reportedly spent an estimated $148 million in the contest, enriching Donald Trump and his family. And yet, this pay-to-play scheme is only the tip of the iceberg of the President’s crypto corruption.
Trump and his family have already pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars from his crypto ventures and they stand to make hundreds of millions more from his stablecoin, USD1, if this bill passes. It launched only weeks ago, but USD1 is already the 5th-largest stablecoin in the world. Passing this bill means that we can expect more anonymous buyers, big companies, and foreign governments to use the President’s stablecoin as both a shadowy bank account shielded from government oversight and as a way to pay off the President personally. For crooks, it’s a two-for-one.
This is not a hypothetical problem. Already, an Abu Dhabi investment firm called MGX is using Trump’s stablecoin to finance a $2 billion investment in the Binance cryptocurrency exchange, essentially giving Trump a cut of this enormous financial deal. MGX is chaired by the intelligence chief of the United Arab Emirates and co-owned by a firm with extensive ties to the Chinese government.
If Congress passes this bill, USD1 won’t just be a coercive tool to pay off a corrupt President. It will be a financial instrument blessed by the United States Government. And this bill provides even more opportunities to reward buyers of Trump’s coins with favors like tariff exemptions, pardons, and government appointments.
Okay, so what does this have to do with yesterday?
On Wednesday afternoon, the Senate voted 68 to 30 to invoke cloture on the GENIUS Act and move to debate.
18 Senate Democrats joined Republicans on the vote: Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), John Fetterman (D-PA), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Ben Lujan (D-NM), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Mark Warner (D-VA), and Raphael Warnock (D-GA). Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Rand Paul (R-KY) voted no.
As David Dayen explains, rather than allow for the robust debate that is called “regular order,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune closed off all possible amendment opportunities by using a procedural move called “filling the amendment tree.” What that means is that by filing a substitute amendment of his own to the bill, he closed off all possible opportunities for other senators to try to amend the bill.
On Thursday, at 1:07 pm, the Senate quickly tabled an initial Democratic effort to table this substitute amendment and allow for debate via a 45–52 vote, with Rand Paul joining Democrats.
At 1:36 pm, the Senate then voted 64–33 to allow the GENIUS Act to not be constrained by the limits of the federal government’s current continuing resolution.
At 2:02 pm, they then voted 67 to 30 for Thune’s amendment. And then at 2:21 pm, they voted 67 to 27 to end debate.
What time did DHS’s goons attack Senator Padilla? Approximately 2 pm.
