Trump’s filibuster obsession plays right into Democrats’ hands
Plus: How women powered Dems to victory on Tuesday, a preview of a key Senate war powers vote and the fallout from Jared Golden’s surprise retirement announcement.
FIRST THINGS FIRST
Coming off Democrats’ nationwide electoral romp on Tuesday night, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) sent President Donald Trump a letter Wednesday morning demanding he convene a meeting with them, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to discuss ending the longest government shutdown in American history.
But as the president’s frustration has grown over Democrats’ refusal to back a Republican-crafted, House-passed short-term funding bill, so too has his belief that GOP lawmakers should simply cut Democrats out of the process altogether.
That stance was on full display at a breakfast with Senate Republicans in White House State Dining Room on Wednesday, where Trump intensified his calls for them to eliminate the legislative filibuster, a rule that requires 60 votes to advance most legislation.
The pressure campaign underscores Trump’s unwillingness to work with Democrats on any part of his legislative agenda since he returned to power in January, favoring instead filibuster-proof maneuvers and executive actions that allow him to govern by simple Republican majorities or the stroke of a pen.
But that approach predates Tuesday’s off-year elections, which saw Democrats win both marquee contests and under-the-radar races that signal a national shift toward Team Blue and embolden their demands for a seat at the table in exchange for helping turn the lights back on.
“[Trump] says he’s a smart politician,” Schumer told me. “The election results were not vague. They were not unclear. They were a lightning bolt. Trump, America doesn’t like what you’re doing.”
Jeffries has characterized Trump’s refusal to negotiate with Democrats throughout the funding lapse as a lack of presidential leadership.
“Donald Trump continues to own this shutdown. Effectively, he’s saying that Republicans shut down the government and have the power to reopen it, but they are refusing to do so because they want to continue to gut the health care of the American people,” he told me. “And these extremists have zero interest in lowering the high cost of living. They learned nothing, apparently, from being shellacked all across the country.”