Democratic victories for the White House and the Senate in November are among President Obama’s top priorities, he said this weekend
A Congress that thinks alike is best, he said Saturday while addressing Democratic supporters in Texas. He said that the political wrangling following the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia last month underscored the importance and power of the Senate, and why it will be a top priority of his to see it returns to Democratic hands.
“The behavior of the Senate since [Scalia’s death] I think gives you a pretty good reason of why how we think about the Senate is so important,” he said. The Senate leadership says it will block the president’s pick to replace Scalia, no matter who it is.
“Our founders designed a system of co-equal branches. And if we have a Congress that is thoughtful and science-based, and cares about equal opportunity and equal rights and civil rights, and is engaged in broadening prosperity for all people, then we make progress,” he said. When Congress “thinks differently,” progress can still be made, “but it’s an awful lot harder,” the president said.
“So I’m going to be working as hard as I can to make sure I’ve got a Democratic successor,” he said. “But I’m going to be working just as hard to make sure that we’ve got a Democratic Senate.”
He asked Democratic organizers “to be just as strategic and hardworking on that front as we are in terms of making sure that we got a Democrat in the White House as well.”
