Fact check: No, Chuck Schumer is NOT “sharing power” with Mitch McConnell in the Senate

| 9:03 pm EST January 18, 2021
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Earlier this evening, CNN posted a misleading headline – and even more misleading tweet – which falsely claimed that Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell have agreed to share power in the Senate. However, a look at the facts involved, and even the text of CNN’s own article, reveals that this is not the case. In fact the Democrats are retaining 100% control of the Senate.

This false reporting from CNN has set off a round of panicked hysteria among Democrats, and a round of misplaced outrage at Schumer for something he didn’t even do. Here’s the real story. Because there are an equal number of Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, each committee will have a Democratic Chair, but an equal number of Democrats and Republicans. However, even the CNN article in question goes on to explain that tie votes will advance items to the full Senate. So the Democrats will have 100% control over everything that makes it to the Senate floor.

Once the Democrats advance an item out of committee, the full Senate will then hold a vote. If it’s 50-50, Vice President Kamala Harris will be brought in to cast the tiebreaker vote and give the win to the Democrats. Conversely, even if the Republicans are able to advance something out of committee with a tie vote, it’ll be defeated 51-50 by the full Senate. In other words, the Democrats will have 100% majority control of the Senate, and the Republicans will have no majority powers of any kind.

The “agreement” released by Schumer and McConnell was a mere formality, and was always the way this was going to go. Palmer Report is calling on CNN and other outlets to retract their misleading headlines aimed at creating a “scandal” that doesn’t exist, and to explain to readers that this agreement results in the Democrats having 100% majority control of the Senate.