Trump says Republicans 'look like fools' and 'will never win' until they kill the filibuster
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President Trump on Saturday urged Senate Republicans to get rid of the upper chamber's filibuster rule, which means some major legislation requires 60 votes to pass — instead of a simple majority of 51 — to avoid being delayed or derailed by a single filibustering senator, typically of the opposition party.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has repeatedly indicated he wants to keep the filibuster, which was already tossed out for nominee confirmations, including for the Supreme Court, by Democratic and Republican majorities using the "nuclear option."
This rule did not affect the Senate GOP's health-care bill, though Trump has previously raised the issue in connection with that vote.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
