As negotiations on a coronavirus economic stimulus package that could top $1 trillion intensified Wednesday, there was early bipartisan leadership agreement on this much:
When the bill is ready for a vote, the senators and House members will cast their ballots in person at the Capitol — just as they've always done for 231 years.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has joined Speaker Nancy Pelosi in flatly rejecting the idea that democracy is best served during a pandemic by permitting the legislative branch to disappear from Washington, with lawmakers permitted to legislate with extreme social distancing — including voting for or against legislation by phone or online.
A growing group of members, from younger, tech-savvy House Democrats to a handful of self-quarantined Senate Republicans, have pressed for Congress to break with two centuries of tradition and allow remote decision-making at least until the spread of the novel coronavirus is under control.
They point to the government's warnings against large groups spending time together on aircraft or in the same rooms, saying their presence in Washington may soon imperil the collective health of Congress.
"If we're telling people to do their work from home when possible, teleconferencing as opposed to being physically present, what are we doing to achieve the same thing?" Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois said Tuesday on the Senate floor.
Later in the day, McConnnell emphatically rejected the argument that senators should be permitted to vote electronically from wherever they might be.
"We'll not be doing that," he said at a news conference where reporters' attendance was limited to reduce the risk of spreading the virus. He suggested that the period for votes, when the rules require senators to appear in the chamber for at least a few seconds to give a thumbs up or thumbs down, could be extended far beyond the customary 15 minutes to allow senators to appear in small groups rather than all at once.
"We will deal with the social distancing issue without fundamentally changing Senate rules," said McConnell, who is keeping the Senate in session until its work on the economic stimulus legislation is done.
The House is now in recess, with most members back in their home districts, until the measure is ready for debate. Before lawmakers left town, Pelosi made clear they would be recalled when it was time to legislate and that remote voting was not an option.
As a practical matter, there is no secure congressional technology to support such a switch. Beyond that, lawmakers would be subject to criticism that they were shirking their responsibilities to shape policies — especially in a time of crisis — and a disconnected legislative branch would risk ceding even more authority, power and limelight to President Trump.
Supporters say remote voting would reduce infections at a Capitol where the average age of House members is 58 and the average age of senators is 63, with 13 of them older than 75. They also argue that keeping members out of Washington now would allow them to model the behavior the government wants the rest of country to practice.
"While Congress is an institution with a proud history, we cannot stand on tradition if it puts lives — and our ability to be the voice of our constituents — at risk," says a letter signed by 45 House members and delivered to Pelosi last week.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a“ Steel Across America” event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks on the Ellipse near the White House on Sept. 8, 2026 in Washington, D.C. President Trump welcomed 9/ 11 first responders to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’ s“ Steel Across America” event featuring a 16,900- pound, 21- foot steel beam recovered.
For Trump, even 9/11 is an opportunity
There was a reason organizers of the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan told President Trump he could not speak at this year’s memorial service.
A good one, it turns out.
Because in a speech he gave on Tuesday in Washington, he did exactly what they were presumably worried about — he made it about himself.
According to The New York Times, Trump had wanted a speaking role at the service, but the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, which oversees the site, said no, as they’ve maintained for the past decade-plus that the venue and event should be nonpartisan.
Trump has long used awful tragedies to either puff himself up, trash political opponents, or sell lies to the American people.
He blamed a deadly plane crash at Washington National Airport last year on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. He blamed Puerto Ricans for the devastation they endured after Hurricane Maria in 2017. He reportedly considered withholding disaster relief after the California wildfires based on the way affected regions voted. In an interview on Fox News meant to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, he used the occasion to slam former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…with graves of the dead behind him.
And now, as we approach the 25th anniversary of what many New Yorkers consider the darkest day in modern history, Trump has done it again.
He told a rambling, nonsensical story — one he’s told before — about going to Ground Zero just after terrorists flew two commercial jets into the twin towers. In the story, which no one has been able to verify, despite multiple attempts, he says firefighters had to carry him out of One Liberty Plaza, also known as the U.S. Steel Building, because they thought it was about to collapse.
As CNN fact checker Daniel Dale notes, there’s no evidence Trump went into this building, especially at a time when NYPD and NYFD had locked down the area. There’s no evidence that building was collapsing — in fact, it was deemed structurally sound and reopened within two months of the attacks. There’s no evidence he was carried out of it by firefighters.
But the lie isn’t even the worst part. Pretend it was all true — why would the leader of our country, and a New Yorker, decide to make that tragic day about himself?
Because that’s who Donald Trump is. He’s a malignant narcissist.
He’s also, incidentally, a terrible and ineffectual president, who’s made ill-fated decisions that he has to keep defending, and there’s nothing he won’t do to make himself look and feel better.
Within the first two minutes of his speech, he was cravenly using 9/11 to justify and promote his dumb war in Iran — two events separated by 25 years and 6,000 miles.
“And I will tell you, we’re right now fighting because we have a certain nation that wanted a nuclear weapon, they were very close to getting it, and now they have no chance at getting it. They will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And they’ve been punished greatly. As you know, we’ve really taken it to them.”
As a New Yorker who lived through 9/11, still one of the worst days of my life, I’m utterly sickened by Trump’s crass, political, and self-promotional framing of that awful day.
And I’m relieved he won’t be given a platform to do it again on Friday’s anniversary in lower Manhattan.
Because for Trump, everything is his for the taking, and absolutely nothing is sacred.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.