Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., told Newsmax on Friday that Senate Republicans are not ready to scrap the filibuster despite President Donald Trump’s public push to do so.
They warn that ending the 60-vote rule could open the door to sweeping changes if Democrats win back full control of Congress and the White House.
“Right now, it’s not on the table,” Mullin told “Finnerty.” “The simple reason why is we want to govern with it.”
Mullin said Democrats would “change the way our government operates” if they inherited a Senate without the filibuster.
He cited long-standing Democrat priorities including packing the Supreme Court, granting statehood to Washington, D.C. and moving to “federalize our election system.”
“You heard the president say that the first thing they would do is pack the courts,” Mullin said. “Then they would try to make D.C. a state. Then they would go after trying to federalize our election system. I think it’s a dangerous slope.”
Trump in recent days has stepped up pressure for Republicans to invoke the “nuclear option” and eliminate the filibuster so the GOP majority can pass priorities without Democrat votes as the government shutdown drags on into its second month.
Mullin argued that Republicans have seen the upside of keeping the rule in place.
“The filibuster protected us from this during Joe Biden’s administration,” he said, crediting the 60-vote threshold with blocking efforts he said would have “changed the foundation of our country.”
He called the idea of killing the filibuster a “slippery slope,” warning that Republicans might win short-term victories but face “long-term consequences.”
Still, Mullin left open the possibility that the debate could shift if Democrats continue to use the filibuster against Trump’s agenda.
He pointed to the current shutdown fight and what he described as Democrats “filibustering all the president’s nominees” and “holding the American people as leverage.”
“If we continue down this path and we’re not able to get out of a shutdown, and the Democrats continue to walk down this path by filibustering all the president’s nominees, by holding up the government and holding the American people as leverage, then it may force the conversation a lot further,” he said.
For now, he added, “we don’t have the votes in the Senate to get it done.”
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