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Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday there isn’t enough support from Republicans to invoke the so-called “nuclear option” and kill the upper chamber’s filibuster rule.
“The votes aren’t there,” Thune (R-SD) told reporters on Monday, according to Politico.
When asked if he had spoken with President Trump about the issue, Thune reportedly laughed and responded: “Oh, yeah.”
Trump had urged Senate Republicans last week to change a procedural rule that requires legislation to receive at least 60 yes votes in order to move forward.
The president argued that without needing to hit the 60-vote threshold, Republicans could end the “country destroying” government shutdown – now in its 34th day – with a simple majority vote.
“It is now time for the Republicans to play their ‘TRUMP CARD,’ and go for what is called the Nuclear Option — Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!” Trump demanded in a Truth Social post last Thursday.
The president re-upped the demand in an interview with “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday.
“I know John doesn’t – well, John and a few others – but you know what, the Republicans have to get tougher,” Trump said, acknowledging the reluctance of Thune and other Republicans to set a precedent that Democrats could use to ram through their own legislative priorities, should they take control of the Senate.
“I disagree with him on this point,” he said of Thune’s pro-filibuster stance.
In his first floor speech of the 119th Congress, Thune defended the filibuster as a tool that the “Founders intended” to “ensure that the Senate stays the Senate.”
“They made the Senate smaller and senators’ terms of office longer, with the intention of creating a more stable, more thoughtful, and more deliberative legislative body to check ill-considered or intemperate legislation and protect the rights of the American people,” he said.
Under former President Joe Biden, Senate Democrats tried but failed to abolish the filibuster.
The party encountered opposition from centrist Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — both of whom later switched their affiliations to independent — when they attempted the gambit.
All but three Democrats have voted to block a House-passed bill to fund the government through Nov. 21 more than a dozen times since the start of the shutdown on Oct. 1.
Republicans need five more Democrats to break ranks to clear the filibuster threshold.
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