Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., is not exactly a paragon of senatorial excellence. His main contribution since taking office in 2021 has been to be a team player for the MAGA wing of the caucus, give the most confounding sound bites possible, and annoy his colleagues with his stunts. And yet it was still a surprise to see a post from him on X where he calls President Joe Biden a “garbage human being.”
It’s a sentiment that would have been a scandal in its own right not too long ago. But Tuberville is unlikely to face any sort of consequences for it. Instead, it reflects how the Senate, which has long prided itself on its gentility in comparison to the “vulgar demeanor” of the House, has become a much crasser place.
The Senate has rules that cover a lot of things, but in this case, Tuberville seems to be in the clear. For one, the body’s rules only apply to debate in the Senate chamber. During those debates, senators cannot “directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator.” It also bars them from offensively referring to other states.
Now, if Tuberville went to the floor and said, for example, that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is a “garbage human being,” the chair would gavel him down. Likewise, if he said during debate that neighboring Georgia is a “garbage state,” he’d be called out for it. But even though Biden is a former senator, there don’t seem to be rules against speaking ill about the president during speeches. And as a fellow public figure, the bar would be pretty high for Biden to take legal action for defamation or anything of the sort based on Tuberville’s post.
There are also Senate rules on the use of official social media accounts. The Senate Ethics Committee has further made clear that there can’t be “any linkage from a Member’s official website or social media to any campaign website or social…
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