Cristy Li

In March, Sen Chuckie Schumer Failed 1st Grade Calendar Reading

(Washington Times) Sen Chuck Schumer stumbled over basic American history on Tuesday, crediting Thomas Jefferson for authorship of the ‘Bill of Rights’ during a debate over the 1st Amendment and campaign finance.

“I think if Thomas Jefferson were looking down, the author of the ‘Bill of Rights’ on whats being proposed here, he’d agree with it, he would agree that the First Amendment cannot be absolute,” said Schumer.

While Jefferson is deemed the principle author of the ‘Declaration of Independence’ he was not intimately involved in the writing of the ‘Constitution or the Bill of Rights’ and in-fact was serving as the Minister of France at the time of both the Constitutional Convention and the Congressional debate over the ‘Bill of Rights.’

Jefferson’s fellow Virginians’ James Madison and George Mason are usually credited are being more influential in the process–Mason for being among the most forceful in demanding the protections of such a ‘Bill of Rights’ and Madison, for being the political muscle that got them approved.

“Madison’s support of the ‘Bill of Rights’ was of critical significance,” the National Archives writes on its webpage: “One of the new representatives from Virginia to the First Federal Congress as established by the new Constitution, he worked tirelessly to persuade the Hose to enact the amendments.”

The National Archives goes on to recount Madison’s efforts to shepherd a package of 17 Amendments through the House in 1789 a number that was later trimmed to 12 in the Senate before being submitted to the States–Of those, 10 were ratified fairly quickly.

One would hope that a sitting U.S. Senator would familiarize himself with American History before attempting to change the Constitution for political purposes.

The new Constitutional Amendment that Schumer is pushing, would grant to federal lawmakers the power to control free speech or whatever they would deem is objectionable to them.

Related: Sen Chuckie Schumer Calls the NRA an Extreme Fringe Group