Samantha Bee found a rare point of agreement with (gasp) Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul Monday night in a segment supporting Sen. Kristen Gillibrand’s Military Justice Improvement Act. The bill, which Gillibrand introduced in back in 2013, would change the reporting procedure for sexual assault in the military so that the decision as to whether to move forward with prosecution would be made outside of the chain of command. The idea is to both increase reporting and lower retaliation rates against victims, since under the current system, commanders have incentives to discourage reporting and prosecution.
Despite bipartisan support from a wide variety of politicians, the bill has so far not reached a filibuster-proof majority, thanks to what Bee, Gillibrand, and the AP characterize as a misinformation campaign from the Pentagon. The segment includes a list of the Nay votes the last time the bill was introduced and asks why end-of-term “no-fucks Obama” isn’t spending any of his political capital on the 10 members of the Democratic caucus who voted against it. They’re only on screen for a few seconds, so for Obama’s convenience, here they are in one place:
- Tom Carper, Delaware
- Tim Kaine, Virginia
- Angus King, Maine
- Joe Manchin, West Virginia
- Claire McCaskill, Missouri
- Bill Nelson, Florida
- Jack Reed, Rhode Island
- Jon Tester, Montana
- Mark R. Warner, Virginia
- Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island
Barring an Independence Day–style alien invasion, it’s hard to imagine the next time Samantha Bee, Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul will be on the same side of a political issue, so let’s savor this while it lasts.
