President Donald Trump’s frustration over Democrats’ determination to keep the government shut down led to the president’s call to end the filibuster, House Speaker Mike Johnson explained on “Fox News Sunday.”
“I think what you’re seeing there is a reflection of his anger—his real frustration—that the government is closed,” Johnson stated.
“He is a big-hearted president. He wants everybody to get their services and the health services for veterans and SNAP benefits and all the rest. And he’s tried everything he can, and he is now exhausting his ability. The courts are now saying you can’t go any further. So he’s just desperate for the government to open.”
The Nuclear Option
Last Thursday on Truth Social, Trump called for Republican senators to “INITIATE THE ‘NUCLEAR OPTION,’” and “GET RID OF THE FILIBUSTER,” accusing Democrats of going “STONE COLD ‘CRAZY’.”
The filibuster allows a Senate minority to delay or block a vote on a bill by requiring a “cloture” vote of 60 senators to end debate and move to a final vote. The president hopes that ending the filibuster would allow Republicans to pass legislation with a simple 51-vote majority, speeding up the approval process.
Johnson has been vocally opposed to such a “nuclear solution,” explaining how this move would immediately give Democrats ammunition to pack the Supreme Court and easily ban firearms as soon as they regain power.
“We on our side traditionally have resisted that because the worst impulses of the far-left Democrat Party—they would pack the court, they would do all the things the president has discussed there,” Johnson said.
However, Trump pointed out last Saturday on Truth Social that “regardless of the Schumer Shutdown, the Democrats will terminate the Filibuster the first chance they get.”
“Don’t be WEAK AND STUPID. FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT! WIN, WIN, WIN! We will immediately END the Extortionist Shutdown, get ALL of our agenda passed, and make life so good for Americans,” Trump wrote.
Democrats so far have rejected 14 times the clean resolution bill proposed by Republicans that would have reopened the government in favor of their own legislation that would allocate more than $1 trillion in free health care for illegal aliens and continue funding Obamacare.
“He’s tried everything he can: He’s tried to negotiate with them, he’s pleaded with them, and they’ve still dug their heels in. So, this is a reflection of all of our desperation. We’re angry about it. I think we should be. The filibuster has traditionally been a safeguard against those worst impulses, but we’ll see what the Senate does,” Johnson said.
