Senate Majority Leader John Thune is standing firm against President Donald Trump's call to abandon a long-standing legislative tool to resolve the 36-day government shutdown.
Thune, who vowed to protect the filibuster from the outset of his leadership, reiterated on Wednesday that the Republicans would not abandon the Senate's 60-vote threshold to end the shutdown. He contended that allowing most legislation to pass with a simple majority would pave the way for Democrats to implement a far-left agenda when they regain power in Washington.
Thune also pointed out that Republicans lack the necessary votes to eliminate the filibuster.
"The practical reality of it is that there just arent the votes in the Senate, and for that matter, not even close," Thune stated in a sit-down interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation on Wednesday.
Thune had just returned from a breakfast meeting with Trump and GOP lawmakers at the White House. During this meeting, the president publicly urged Republicans to abolish the procedural rule to reopen the government. Trump suggested that without the filibuster, Republicans could "pass legislation at levels youve never seen before" and could enhance the party's standing in the midterms following a less than impressive electoral performance on Tuesday evening.
Although Thune did not directly respond to the President`'s comments during the meeting, he revealed that he has had several discussions with Trump about the filibuster over the past few weeks.
Thune is of the view that eliminating the procedural tool would hand Democrats their desired outcome to end the shutdown. He is also considering the potential impact of the filibuster's removal on Republicans when they find themselves in the minority again.
"Theres a real concern among Senate Republicans that if that [the filibusters elimination] ever happens, they do not want to be the ones that were responsible for opening the door to allow the Democrats to pack the Supreme Court, allow for abortion on demand and federalizing elections," Thune said, describing the Democrats' probable legislative agenda as a "long list of horribles."
When questioned about the legislative filibuster's future with no exceptions until the start of the new Congress in January 2027, Thune responded affirmatively.
Thune acknowledged the president's frustration with the Democrats' decision to hold the government hostage for over a month with no immediate resolution in sight. He noted that the Democrats have filibustered a clean bipartisan spending bill to fund the government 14 times since the end of September. If the legislative filibuster were abolished, Senate Republicans would be able to fund the government independently.
"I think thats what the Presidents reacting to these people arent going to do anything that I want to do, even if its in their best interest, because of their blind hatred for him and his administration," Thune said.
However, Thune is confident that abolishing the filibuster to end the shutdown is not the appropriate response to the short-term problem of funding the government. If the Senate's 60-vote threshold was exclusively removed for appropriations bills to end the shutdown, Thune believes it would soon be discarded for everything else as well.
"Once that door is opened, the horse is out of the barn," Thune said. "Theres no putting the genie back in the bottle."
Despite a few GOP senators expressing their willingness to weaken or completely eliminate the filibuster following the president's pressure campaign, a majority of Republicans seem to agree with Thune that the votes aren't there.
"It only takes third grade math to figure out that if youve got 15 or more members that are dug in, it's not going to happen," retiring North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis told reporters on Wednesday.
"I dont think the votes exist," Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno said. "What would be interesting is how the Democrats vote."
Then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and a majority of Democrats tried to weaken the filibuster to pass so-called voting rights legislation in 2022, only to be rebuffed by Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Neither senator chose to run for reelection in 2024.
Thune said the maverick duo told him that at least eight other Democrats were privately opposed to eliminating the filibuster at the time, but were afraid of retribution from the partys base.
"They didnt want to be the ones that took the spear as long as they [Manchin and Sinema] were willing to take it," Thune said.
Although Thune is certain that nearly all Democrats would oppose abolishing the filibuster under the current Republican trifecta, he left open the possibility that the caucus might once again be divided on the issue upon retaking Senate control.
Trump seemed to concede on Wednesday that he lacks the necessary votes to abolish the filibuster with the Republican conference.
"Im going to go by your wishes. Youre very smart people. Were good friends," Trump told Republican lawmakers at the White House on Wednesday. "But I think its a tremendous mistake. It would be a tragic mistake."
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