In Rhode Island, we scored a big win for congressional term limits on September 5th in the special election for Rhode Island’s first congressional district, both Democratic nominee Gabe Amo and the Republican nominee Gerry Leonard signed the US Term Limits pledge. The special election for the seat is November 7th and no matter who wins term limits for Congress, wins with another supporter in the House of Representatives. Hi, I’m Holly Robichaud and this is Breaking News on Term Limits.
The news and DC continues to be our aging Congress, and the need to fix this. Recently, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, age 81, froze at a press briefing for 30 seconds, this is the second time this has happened to the senator in public. As you may remember, the senator was sidelined from his senate duties in March after suffering a concussion, political reports that there is growing concern among his Senate colleagues over his hearing and refusal to wear a hearing aid.
Ironically, McConnell froze when asked if he would seek re-election in 2026. Senator McConnell is not the only aging senator who’s been the news regarding health issues, California Senator Dianne Feinstein age 90 has been in the headlines for missing Senate duties due to health issues and was recorded appearing totally unaware of a piece of legislation she was voting on, according to Politico and CNN, members of the California delegation from both sides of the aisle claims she’s totally unresponsive to legislation affecting the state due to health issues. The average age of the current Senate is 65 years. There are currently four senators in their 80s with One Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley. Due to celebrate his 90th birthday on September 17th, and there are 29 senators in their 70s. It’s not only happening in the Senate, the US House of Representatives also continues to age, all of this is bringing the need for congressional term limits to the forefront of the political debate.
Former South Carolina Governor in United States Ambassador Nikki Haley, who signed the US Term Limits pledge for presidential candidates, renewed her call for term limits following the McConnell episode. Check out this clip from CBS’s Face the Nation.
Ambassador, you said this in recent days, the Senate is, “The most privileged nursing home in the country,” and McConnell needs to, “Know when to leave.” Do you believe it’s time for McConnell to step down from his leadership position?
Bob, I am completely for term limits, I’m completely for mental competency tests for anyone over the age of 75, and I’m not saying that to be disrespectful. Here you have a Mitch McConnell who’s done great service to the country, you have Dianne Feinstein who had a great career, you’ve got Nancy Pelosi, who’s been there a long time. At what point do they get it’s time to leave. They need to let a younger generation take over, we wanna go and start working for our kids to make sure we have a strong national security, to make sure we have a stronger economic policy, to make sure that America is safe and we can’t do that if these individuals refused to give up power. This is not just a Republican or Democrat problem, this is a congressional problem.
Support for term limits continues to grow in DC. Minnesota representative Dean Phillips, a Democrat. Also said he supports congressional term limits following the McConnell episode. Check it out.
After 81-year-old Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell appeared to freeze during a news conference, Wednesday, DFL Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips was blunt on X writing, “For goodness sake, the family, friends and staff of senators Feinstein and McConnell, or doing them and our country a tremendous disservice. It’s time for term limits for Congress and the Supreme Court and some basic human decency.”
Now it’s time for the corrupt politician of the week. This week making our list is Ohio Senator Sharrod Brown, Brown has been in the United States Senate since 2006. Before that, he was in the house of representatives for 14 years. He was four congressional term limits before he wasn’t. He has abused the Ohio tax rules for two homes that he owns and was late paying a bill on one of the houses seven times in the last decade, according to news reports. More than 10 years ago, Brown was caught up in a similar scandal when he claimed he misplaced a tax bill for his condo in Washington, the 70-year-old Brown and his wife, USA Today columnist Connie Schultz for years have claimed owner occupancy tax credits at their Cleveland house in Columbus Condo. According to NBC news, likely racking up more than $1000 in savings between the two addresses, check out this clip of US Term Limit’s President Phil Blumel appearing on CBN to discuss why term limits is the solution to the aging Congress.
Aging really is not an issue when you have regular rotation office or term limits, like our founders intended. So there’s nothing ageist about term limits, but it does help solve the problem of our gerontocracy in Washington, which is getting severe.
In state news, we had another banner week, we had 11 candidates across the nation for state legislatures, sign the US Term Limits pledge that they will support if elected, a resolution passed by the legislature calling for congressional term limits. Everywhere across the nation were building momentum. Hey, I wanted to follow up on our interview with Jared Hendrix from North Dakota last week, Jared is running Retire Congress North Dakota, he’s actively working to collect signatures to get a state constitutional amendment on the 2024 ballot that would prohibit anyone age 80 or older from being elected to Congress from North Dakota. Way to go, Jared. Keep up the good work. Washington insiders may not be listening to the voters for the need for term limits on Congress, but Congressional candidates sure are. This past week, eight Congressional candidates signed the US Term Limits pledge. The candidates was signed are Austin Vigue of Alabama’s second district. Russ Andrews of Colorado’s third district. Russell Prescott in new campus first district, Ken Balk and Pennsylvania’s first district. Phillip Vico in Pennsylvania’s 14th district, Sean Barry in Texas 29th district, Scott Abert in Wisconsin first district, and Zane Lawhorn in West Virginia.
We are so happy that they have signed our pledge, more candidates are signing on a daily basis. So stay tuned. Fox Business Network will be hosting the second Republican presidential debate on September 27th. We are urging them to ask each candidate if they support term limits on Congress, and if they will sign the US Term Limits presidential pledge. So far, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy have signed our pledge. We’re urging all the presidential candidates in both parties to sign right away. We’ll be updating you as the candidates sign. Senator Mitch McConnell’s recent episode of freezing has reminded us all why it’s so important to pass term limits, we’ve got the momentum between McConnell and Feinstein’s episodes people are waking up to the need for congressional term limits, but we can’t do it alone, we need you to get involved, please go to termlimits.org and get active today, and be sure to share this program every week with your friends and family. I’m Holly Robichaud and this is Breaking News on Term Limits. We’ll be back to you next week.