GOP Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy used an appearance on Fox News to complain that Republican leadership “ignores” his ideas to bypass filibuster issues.
Kennedy told Laura Ingraham that he disagrees with Donald Trump’s calls to eliminate the 60-vote threshold required for legislation to pass in the Senate, while also expressing frustration with his GOP colleagues.
“We had a meeting. Every time I brought up the idea of doing a second reconciliation bill where we don’t need Democrats, our leadership just ignores me,” Kennedy said.
“I don’t blame the president for being frustrated. He’s frustrated that we’re not getting up off our ice-cold, lazy butts and passing bills that would be part of his agenda, and frankly, I don’t blame him for feeling that way.”
Trump has repeatedly demanded that Senate Majority Leader John Thune implement the so-called “nuclear option” and eliminate the filibuster in favor of a simple majority vote to allow legislation to pass and end the government shutdown, which is now the longest in U.S. history.
Democrats are holding firm in their demand that they will only support funding bills if they extend healthcare premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, which are due to expire at the end of the year. Republicans have said they will not come to the table until the shutdown ends.
With voters increasingly blaming Trump and the GOP for the shutdown—and the party suffering an embarrassing electoral wipeout on Tuesday—the president has been furiously demanding that the filibuster be scrapped.
“The Democrats are far more likely to win the Midterms, and the next Presidential Election, if we don’t do the Termination of the Filibuster (The Nuclear Option!), because it will be impossible for Republicans to get Common Sense Policies done with these Crazed Democrat Lunatics being able to block everything by withholding their votes,” Trump posted on Truth Social Tuesday.
A number of Republican senators, including Thune, have said they do not want to eliminate the filibuster, which was established to prevent the ruling party from having too much control.
On her Tuesday show, Ingraham asked Kennedy whether the GOP should consider eliminating the filibuster, given that Democrats might “dump out of it themselves the next chance they get and run the table” regardless of what Republicans do while in control of the Senate.
“I’m not ready to get rid of the filibuster or the blue slip,” Kennedy replied. “I think what President Trump is really frustrated about is the fact that the Senate is not doing anything.
“And he’s right,” he added. “We haven’t done anything. We passed the One Big Beautiful Bill, which we would not have been able to do without the president’s involvement, and since then, we’ve done nothing, zero, zilch, nada.”
