President Donald Trump has made his position clear: He wants Senate Republicans to nuke the legislative filibuster and push through a sprawling voter ID bill.
It’s enough to make some Republicans think twice before leaping to the filibuster’s defense, as the arcane details of Senate procedure spark strong emotions and bitter online feuds. But others are taking a different approach.
“I’m going to make myself a T-shirt that says, ‘No, I’m not interested in blowing up the filibuster,’” Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joked last week.
And Sen. John Curtis of Utah drew a line in the sand Thursday, writing in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, “Under no circumstance will I support any effort to end or alter the filibuster, as any party that does so wouldn’t be guaranteed survival.”
“Their agenda would be guaranteed death come the next majority,” he said, defending the tool as critical for preserving debate and compromise in the Senate.
