Republicans shrug off Trump's call to scrap Senate filibuster over shutdown

1/11/2025 6:30

Republicans on Friday showed little sign of heeding President Donald Trump's latest call to jettison the Senate filibuster and bypass a Democratic roadblock to reopening the partially shuttered federal government.



Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has repeatedly defended the filibuster for years, has not changed his position on the importance of the long-standing rule, a spokesperson said hours after Trump took to social media to call for its removal. "It is now time for the Republicans to play their 'TRUMP CARD' and go for what is called the Nuclear Option — Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW," Trump wrote on social media late on Thursday.



Senator John Curtis of Utah, a member of Thune's Republican majority, also went on the record to defend the filibuster on Friday. "The filibuster forces us to find common ground in the Senate. Power changes hands, but principles shouldn't. I'm a firm no on eliminating it," Curtis wrote on the social media

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