Political Quotes

“Over 60 Senators in the U.S. Senate--the majority of Republicans and the majority of Democrats--sent this letter to who was then leadership of the Senate, writing, in essence: Don't change the legislative filibuster. A bunch of Democrats and a bunch of Republicans--I was going to read the names, but they know who they are--the majority on both sides in this body, from both parties, in 2017 said: Don't change it. This shouldn't be something the U.S. Senate changes. Part of the reason this was going on was that, at the time, then- President Trump was pressing Senators, particularly Majority Leader McConnell, to change the filibuster. The filibuster requires 60 votes to move legislation in the Senate. It requires compromise. It requires bipartisanship. It is what makes us different from the House. At the time, then-Republican President Trump was saying: Change it. I want legislation to move more quickly. The Republicans and then-Majority Leader McConnell said that it was not a good idea. As a matter of fact, most of us said that it was not a good idea, so we didn't do anything. We didn't change it because we didn't want to change the nature of the U.S. Senate. This is one of the issues being discussed right now, but it shouldn't be a difficult issue because, as I said, the vast majority of Senators in this body, a couple of years ago, said: Don't do it.…”