House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is not weighing in on whether Senate Democrats should eliminate the legislative filibuster and says she does not welcome senators weighing in on the rules of the lower chamber.
According to the Senate’s website, the filibuster is a “loosely defined term for action designed to prolong debate and delay or prevent a vote on a bill, resolution, amendment, or other debatable question.”
That means that most legislation requires 60 votes to pass, which in a Senate divided evenly between Democrats and Republicans can be a hard bar to meet. However, some Democrats are calling for the elimination of the hurdle, which would allow Democrats to pass legislation with 51 votes, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote.
During a press conference on Thursday, Pelosi did not say whether she thinks Democrats should get rid of the filibuster but claimed that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is “the problem.”
“You realize that Mitch McConnell is still the problem. It’s not as if it was Mitch McConnell [and] now it’s somebody else. No. Mitch McConnell is still the problem,” Pelosi said.
She continued, “And I don’t get involved in any discussion on Senate rules, you know that. And I don’t welcome any discussion from them on House rules.”
Watch the video below:
"Mitch McConnell is still the problem." — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on whether the Senate should remove the filibuster. pic.twitter.com/O8nvgjuR1D
— The Recount (@therecount) April 22, 2021
In 2019, when McConnell was still the majority leader in the Senate, he vowed to be the “Grim Reaper” for Democratic proposals if he was still in the position after the 2020 election.
“They won’t even be voted on. So think of me as the Grim Reaper: the guy who is going to make sure that socialism doesn’t land on the president’s desk,” he added.
However, now that McConnell is the minority leader in the Senate, he is vowing to “fight” President Joe Biden’s agenda “every step of the way.”
He claimed that if Democrats eliminate the filibuster, it would lead to a “completely scorched earth Senate. He also said the efforts to hold up former President Barack Obama’s agenda would look like “child’s play.”
