WASHINGTON — Some Republicans are ready to nuke the filibuster after their party's leader put pressure on them.
President Donald Trump has tried to redraw congressional lines in red states to hold onto the narrow GOP majority in the House. Political analysts viewed the Tuesday election as a possible predictor for the 2026 midterm elections. Now, some Senate Republicans are searching for ways to change election laws and hold onto power, in this case, by killing the filibuster.
The filibuster is a procedural tactic that requires a 60-vote majority to pass a bill in the Senate. There's a fanciful mystique about the filibuster created by the Frank Capra film "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." But the reality is that the filibuster in that film isn't the filibuster today. In the past, the filibuster required that the person doing the filibuster must hold the floor. In the modern era the threat a filibuster can stop a bill from getting a vote.
Republicans have discussed the so-called "nuclear option" for years, but have yet to pull the trigger. Trump wrote on social media that he wanted the Senate to make the move.
“Republicans, you will rue the day that you didn’t TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER!!! BE TOUGH, BE SMART, AND WIN!!!" Trump recently posted to Truth Social. "This is much bigger than the Shutdown, this is the survival of our Country!”
Even the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board warned against it.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Raw Story that he is all in on whatever Trump wants, after supporting the filibuster when Republicans used it themselves.
"President Trump made a very convincing case. We know the minute Democrats get control of the Senate, they're going to get rid of the filibuster," Johnson said.
Democrats previously held power in the U.S. Senate until the 2024 election. But Johnson thinks that since former Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema were defeated and dropped out, there won't be any Democrats left to fight to preserve it.
"There will never be another Senate Democratic candidate who will not run without pledging to nuke it," Johnson surmised. "So they're going to do it. They're going to do it to maintain their power. New senators, pack the Supreme Court, so we'd better beat them to the punch and act while we can pass legislation for the benefit of the American public."
Namely, Johnson wants to pass new laws restricting elections under the guise that they need to be more "secure."
"I would love, and I mentioned this to the president, the Eliminate Shutdown Act, which right now we've got even the party appropriators oppose, because like I say, apparently they like holding government employees and American people hostage so they can maintain their power to pass bills," said Johnson.
"Then we can turn our attention to repairing the damage done by Obamacare and transition to a system that actually works," he continued. "People said we'll do it through reconciliation. Easier said than done because of the limitations of that."
"I've been trending that way ever since the Democrats basically showed their hand, you know, purging the party of anybody who's opposed to it. We know when they get back here, they're going to do it."Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) told Raw Story that Trump is strong-arming the Senators.
“Yeah, he's focused on it. I mean, I don't go into private details of a closed meeting, but, yeah, his whole focus was the filibuster,” Lankford said about the Wednesday morning meeting at the White House.
He doesn't support ending it.
“We'd better start working for the American people. They elected President Trump to make changes, and we can't make changes if we continue the same path," Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) told Raw Story when asked if he's ready to kill the filibuster.
Raw Story asked how many Republicans supported it.
“I don't know. You got a lot of them. I’m not going to worry about it. They're going to try to keep their power, which is fine. I mean, that's their prerogative. But I'm for doing something for the American people," said Tuberville.
He admitted he changed his mind on enacting the nuclear option after the shutdown.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.) said that Trump certainly didn't change her mind, and she continues to oppose eliminating the filibuster.
Punchbowl News' Andrew Desiderio, in a Nov. 5 post on X reported, "Thune on the filibuster post-Trump breakfast: 'I know where the votes are. The answer is, there aren't the votes.'"
