The Alabama Senate slowed down on Thursday as Democrats activated a filibuster against a bill on the calendar to reform the board of the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
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Senators never made it to that portion of the agenda, however, as Minority Leader Bobby Singleton (D-Greensboro) and State Sen. Rodger Smitherman (D-Birmingham) took the microphone to stall in classic fashion.
At times, Singleton unloaded on President Donald Trump, “unofficial president” Elon Musk, and elected Republican officials on all levels of government.
He consistently called DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, “Dodge”.
“We’re allowing a South African-born to be in the Oval Office daily and just call shots, take over. He and his little son, holding a press conference from the Oval Office and the so-called president sitting there while the little boy telling him, whistling, ‘You ain’t no president.’ He had that from me, Daddy. His daddy told him, ‘I’m in control of the world now, son,’ and we sit back as Americans and we allow that to happen,” Singleton said.
Democrats took turns on Thursday, several hours after the Alabama House completed business, while Singleton said GOP state lawmakers and congressional leaders “kiss the ring every day” out of fear of being ousted in a primary challenge.
“Dodge [DOGE] is robbing us blind! And when it happen, everybody around here going to be, ‘Well, we should have did something. We should have said something.’ To blame everybody up in Washington, but this is our state,” Singleton said.
“We’re going to wait until this man steal all of the information—he got all these goons in there, taking all of the data from Social Security, all of this pertinent data that we, he’s getting, he might turn around and hold America hostage and say, ‘If you want your data back, you got to buy it back from me.’”
While they were in favor of the measure, Democrats stalled on legislation by State Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) to require state buildings to install adult-sized changing tables in state buildings.
It ultimately passed in a unanimous 27-0 vote.
Singleton, Smitherman and Senate Democrats were opposed to State Sen. Chris Elliott’s bill reforming the authority to appoint the Alabama Department of Archives and History’s board members from the current structure to the state’s executive and legislative leaders.
After Senate adjourned around 4:00 p.m. today, it marked the conclusion of day ten of the 2025 state legislative session.
Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.