Mitch McConnell just used the nuclear option in the Senate to get Trump’s judges fast-tracked after years of Democrat delays.
This is a huge move, changing the rules, and the Democrats are furious. They are already hinting that they will retaliate if they ever take power in the Senate.
What this really means is that we are heading towards a day where the legislative filibuster and the 60 vote threshold will be gone. It is a matter of when not if.
From NBC News: Senate Republicans on Wednesday used a controversial procedural tactic called the “nuclear option” to change chamber’s rules to make it easier to confirm lower-level Trump nominees.
The effort, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, comes after Republicans failed to adopt a resolution to change the chamber’s rules so that non-Cabinet level executive and district court nominations would face only two hours of floor debate rather than 30 before a confirmation vote. That resolution received only 51 of the 60 votes required for adoption, along party lines.
“This systematic obstruction is unfair to our duly elected president and, more importantly, it is disrespectful to the American people who deserve the government they elected,” McConnell said Wednesday before the vote on the Senate floor. “We cannot set this new precedent that the Senate minorities will systematically keep an administration understaffed down to the least controversial nominees anytime they wish somebody else had won the election.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said before the floor vote. “I am sorry, so sorry, my Republican colleagues have gone along with Senator McConnell’s debasement of the Senate. To do this for such blatantly political ends is simply unworthy of this institution.”
McConnell said Tuesday that the move was necessary to bypass what he calls “systematic obstruction” by the Democrats.
McConnell has made confirming judges nominated by President Donald Trump a priority during Trump’s first term. The rule change will also help Republicans confirm other Trump nominees who have yet to receive a full Senate vote.
