President Trump suffered a massive setback.
What just happened is bad news for the Trump agenda.
And one terrible confession on Fox News will have Trump pounding the table in rage.
Trump declared that the SAVE Act was his key legislative priority and that he wouldn’t sign any other bills until the Senate sent the SAVE Act to his desk.
The SAVE Act protects fair elections by requiring all 50 states to require voter ID and proof of citizenship to register to vote.
These are 80/20 issues for Republicans.
Democrats are threatening to filibuster the bill, which means Republicans can’t end the debate since they don’t have 60 votes.
But there is a workaround.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune could force Democrats to hold the floor for a talking filibuster.
Once each Democrat speaks twice, Republicans can pass the bill with 51 votes.
However, Thune rejected the talking filibuster, claiming it wasn’t feasible.
Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier asked Thune why he rejected a talking filibuster.
Thune claimed Republicans didn’t have 51 votes.
“We don’t have the votes for it. And that’s, again, it’s a simple function of the math in the Senate. It would take even a talking filibuster. It would take 51 votes. We don’t have 51 votes for that in the United States Senate,” Thune replied.
Baier asked Thune how that was the case when Republicans hold 53 seats.
“But why is that? Why are Republican colleagues not going to force the issue?” Baier wondered.
Thune admitted that many Senate Republicans were secret Democrats who would vote with Democrats on amendments offered during a talking filibuster, which Thune said would allow Democrats to restart the clock on the filibuster.
“I know people don’t like to hear this, but the talking filibuster takes you back basically to the 1800s. You go back to the 19th century and the way things were done in the Senate, and we can’t find an example in modern Senate history where a piece of legislation passed via the talking filibuster,” Thune added.
“It would be at 51 votes, but between now and then, and you’re talking about unlimited debate, and any time an amendment, for example, is offered and fails if it gets tabled, you start all over. You reset the clock. And it really favors the minority,” Thune continued.
Thune doesn’t want a talking filibuster because it would force these RINOs to either vote like Republicans or expose themselves as Democrats, and that would allow conservatives to mount primary challenges when they are up for re-election.
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