Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman appeared to suggest that his party could nuke the filibuster rule in the Senate should they win back control of the upper chamber in a future election cycle. During a Fox News appearance on Sunday, he reminded a panel that his party ran on ditching the 60-vote rule to advance legislation as recently as a few years ago.
“I’d like to remind everybody that it wasn’t just a couple years ago every single Democrat, including myself – I campaigned on this…to remove the filibuster,” Fetterman said in response to a question about whether his Democratic colleagues still sought to do so.
“That was actually wrong – I was wrong for that, I would say that,” he continued. “Now, all of us love the filibuster, Democrats love the filibuster” because the rule gives his party power to disrupt the GOP majority’s agenda.
“I think it’s dangerous – real dangerous – to make the Senate essentially the same thing as the House and work as majority rules,” he said before repeating that his party, just a few years back, sought to dismantle the rule when they had the majority under President Biden.
At that time, two Democrats – Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Krysten Sinema of Arizona, both of whom are no longer in the chamber – opposed the rule change and drew the ire of their party.
Some took Fetterman’s response as a warning that, should his party regain a majority in the near future, Democrats will move on dismantling the filibuster – which President Trump has been pushing Republicans to do so they can pass the SAVE Act, which would require a voter ID to cast ballots in federal elections while severely curtailing mail-in voting.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Republican colleagues last week that the party does not currently have enough votes to advance a House-approved voting reform measure in the Senate by forcing Democrats to conduct a “talking filibuster.”
Thune’s comments came as Senate Republicans discussed the strategy during a closed-door lunch meeting. The proposal would require Democrats to continuously hold the Senate floor and debate the legislation to block it, potentially extending debate for days or weeks.
The legislation, known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, has been identified as a top priority by President Donald Trump, who raised the issue Monday during a policy meeting with House Republicans.
Speaking in Florida earlier that day, Trump said passage of the SAVE Act was important to Republican efforts to maintain control of Congress in the upcoming November elections. “It will guarantee the midterms. If you don’t get it, big trouble,” he said, per The Hill.
Democrats have argued that only a small number of cases involving immigrants in the country illegally voting in federal elections have been documented in recent years, and they falsely say available evidence does not support claims of widespread voter fraud.
At the same time, Trump has increased pressure on Senate Republican leaders to adopt the talking filibuster strategy to advance the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act. Trump has also withheld an endorsement in the closely watched Republican Senate primary in Texas between John Cornyn and Ken Paxton.
Thune and other Republican leaders have encouraged Trump to back Cornyn, arguing that he may have a stronger chance of winning the general election. However, Trump has not yet announced his support for either candidate.
Asked about speculation that the White House may be delaying an endorsement because Trump disagrees with Senate Republicans over the talking filibuster approach, Thune acknowledged the possibility and said it was a concern.
“Yeah, I mean, that’s probably not a linkage that is in anybody’s best interest because voting on the SAVE America Act is something we can do but passage is not guaranteed,” Thune said, per The Hill. “You have to make political decisions independent of what the final disposition of that might be on the floor.”