As the shutdown drags on, President Donald Trump has grown insistent that Senate Republicans get rid of the filibuster. Some of his allies in the Senate appear to be listening.
Though Senate Republican leadership has remained staunchly opposed to using the so-called “nuclear option,” some members of the conference are more open to the idea of lowering the traditional 60-vote threshold to a simple majority in order to pass a funding patch and open the government. Trump has been more aggressive in his calls for the Senate to use that option — including at a breakfast event he invited Republican senators to on Wednesday morning after Republicans faced a drubbing in Tuesday’s elections.
After the president’s pitch at Wednesday’s breakfast, some Republicans returned to Capitol Hill saying that the shutdown’s record-breaking length has opened them up to nuking the filibuster.