Johnson warns against Trump’s demand for Senate to go ‘nuclear’ to end shutdown
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., warned against President Donald Trump’s demand for the Senate to invoke the “nuclear option” to end the government shutdown.
Johnson was asked during his Friday press conference about a late-night Truth Social post in which Trump demanded the Senate get rid of the filibuster and its 60-vote threshold to ram through the GOP’s federal funding bill by a simple majority.
“Look, I’ll just say this in general, as I’ve said many times about the filibuster, it’s not my call. I don’t have a say in this. It’s a Senate chamber issue,” Johnson said. “But the filibuster has traditionally been viewed as a very important safeguard. If the shoe was on the other foot, I don’t think our team would like it.”
Sixty votes are required in the Senate to overcome a filibuster and proceed with debate and a final vote on most pieces of legislation. Senate Democrats attempted to get rid of it when they last held the majority in order to pass reforms that they accused Republicans of blocking, but they were blocked by more moderate members of their own party.
JOHNSON TURNS UP SHUTDOWN PRESSURE ON DEMOCRATS AS GOP UNEASE GROWS
If Republicans successfully got rid of it now with a move colloquially known as the “nuclear option,” Johnson warned Democrats would then use that standard in the future to pass progressive policies while sidelining the GOP.
“The Democrats, look, they’ve said what they would do. They would pack the Supreme Court. They would make Puerto Rico and D.C. states. They would ban firearms. They would do all sorts of things that would be very harmful for the country, and the safeguard in the Senate has always been the filibuster,” Johnson said. “But again, not my issue, not something I get to even weigh in on.”
The shutdown is in its 31st day after Senate Democrats blocked the GOP from advancing its short-term federal funding bill 13 times since Sept. 19.
At the current tallies, five more Senate Democrats are needed to vote with Republicans to overcome the filibuster.
TRUMP URGES GOP TO ‘END THE SHUTDOWN’ BY GOING NUCLEAR ON SENATE FILIBUSTER
Trump, apparently fed up with the impasse, posted late on Thursday night, “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!”
“Just a short while ago, the Democrats, while in power, fought for three years to do this, but were unable to pull it off because of Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Never have the Democrats fought so hard to do something because they knew the tremendous strength that terminating the Filibuster would give them,” Trump wrote.
“Well, now WE are in power, and if we did what we should be doing, it would IMMEDIATELY end this ridiculous, Country destroying ‘SHUT DOWN.’ If the Democrats ever came back into power, which would be made easier for them if the Republicans are not using the Great Strength and Policies made available to us by ending the Filibuster, the Democrats will exercise their rights, and it will be done in the first day they take office, regardless of whether or not we do it.”
Johnson said he interpreted it as Trump expressing his frustration with the situation.
“What you’re seeing is an expression of the president’s anger at the situation. He is as angry as I am, and the American people are, about this madness,” Johnson said. “He just desperately wants the government to be reopened so that all these resources can flow to the people who need it so much.”
While the Senate GOP went nuclear once already this year to approve Trump’s nominees, the likelihood that they do it again, especially to gut the filibuster, is low.
“[Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s] position on the importance of the legislative filibuster is unchanged,” Thune’s spokesperson Ryan Wrasse said in a statement.
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