Chuck Schumer
Role at the time: Senate Minority Leader and United States Senator for New York, in a statement to MS NOW
Statement summary
In a statement to MS NOW, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described Hawley's bill to revoke the FDA's approval of mifepristone as inconceivably cruel and radical.
“inconceivably cruel and radical”
Source for Bill Cassidy's response as chairman of the committee holding the bill, John Cornyn's "All in" post on X, Chuck Schumer's reaction, and Alexis McGill Johnson's statement. Also records that spokespeople for Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski did not respond to questions about the bill, and that the two were the only Republican senators who declined to sign a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services calling for a mifepristone crackdown.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
Schumer's words are directed at that bill and reject it in the strongest terms. The closest competing label is minimizes, in the sense that dismissing a proposal as radical can work to place it outside serious debate rather than to argue against it. That loses because the characterisation is plainly condemnatory rather than a downplaying of anyone's concern, and it is addressed squarely at the legislation under scrutiny.