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Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) said Republicans should fight to get President Trump's coming Supreme Court nominee confirmed by any means necessary. Trump has said he will be announcing his choice to fill the late Antonin Scalia's seat on the bench next week. Republicans will need at least eight Democrats to support Trump's nominee to overcome the 60-vote filibuster hurdle. But Cruz suggested the GOP shouldn't rule out the so-called "nuclear option" to reduce the threshold to a majority. The move would be a gamble, setting a precedent that could weaken the GOP's position if Democrats come back into power....

The filibuster may seem a weapon of obstruction in the hands of Senator Schumer, but the Minority Leader may find himself in a trap of his own making when he uses it. During the Obama years, Republicans campaigned on the promise that "If we control the Senate and the House, we will pass conservative laws to rein in a lawless Obama administration." But after each election Senate Majority Leader McConnell said that that it was almost impossible to get anything done because the Democrats blocked every meaningful action in the Senate. Does that really mean that we have to elect...

Rules: You have to laugh at the Democrats' current plight. They have almost no leverage to block anyone Donald Trump decides to select for judgeships or cabinet posts. They can't stop Republicans from repealing most of ObamaCare. And they only have themselves to blame. On CNN this week, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer was lamenting the fact that Democrats wouldn't be able to use the filibuster to stop Trump's nominees. There should, he said, be "60 votes because on such important positions there should be some degree of bipartisanship." And who, exactly, is to blame for this? Schumer's predecessor in...

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer is preparing to block President-elect Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee if he or she is not in the “mainstream.” “It’s hard for me to imagine a nominee that Donald Trump would choose that would get Republican support that we could support,” the New York Democrat told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Tuesday night. Asked if he would do his best to hold the seat open, Schumer responded, “Absolutely.”

Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said he is confident that he has laid the groundwork for Democrats to nuke the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees if they win back the Senate in November. Envisioning Hillary Clinton in the White House and Democrats controlling the Senate, Reid warned that if a Senate Republican minority block her Supreme Court nominee, he is confident the party won’t hesitate to change the filibuster rules again. Such a move would be an extension of what Reid did in 2013 when he was still majority leader, eliminating filibusters (with a simple majority vote) on...

Incoming Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) says he regrets a 2013 decision by Senate Democrats, known as the “nuclear option” to decrease the number of senators needed to confirm Cabinet picks from 60 to 51 votes. “I wish it hadn’t happened,” Schumer said in an interview with CNN, about the move that was triggered by former Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid (D-NV). The move is dubbed the “nuclear option” because by altering the filibuster rules it stands to blow up bipartisan Senate relations. “I argued against it at the time,” Schumer said. “I said both for Supreme Court and...

Dems digging the hole deeper Democrats don’t understand what happened in the 2016 election. They don’t know why they lost and they have no concept of how badly they were beaten. I’ve made this point a hundred times. We see their denial in their post-election defiance, their doubling-down on people like Pelosi, and the bitter name-calling aimed at anyone who didn’t support Hillary Clinton. They cling to popular vote totals, buoyed by left-wing superstates New York and California, so they can whistle past their electoral graveyard and their brutal 2018 map.

Determined to hold around two dozen Senate seats in 2018, Democrats will use the coming series of confirmation hearings to try to distinguish themselves from President-elect Donald Trump’s billionaire nominees and convince working-class voters who elected him that he’s not on their side. While Democrats have little leverage to stop the Republican’s picks in the Senate, they still plan a fight. To highlight what they say is the hypocrisy of Trump’s campaign promise to be a champion for the economically struggling little guy, they’ll focus on the nominees’ wealth, ties to Wall Street and willingness to privatize Medicare, among other...

Democrats are increasingly antsy over the lineup President-elect Donald Trump has announced for his Cabinet, but they are also powerless to do very much to stop him — thanks to their own leader, Sen. Harry Reid. It’s unlikely Mr. Reid had a President Trump in mind when he pulled the so-called “nuclear option” trigger three years ago, changing Senate rules to eviscerate the use of a filibuster to block presidential nominees. Set up to help President Obama’s picks overcome GOP opposition, those same rules now will clear the path for Sen. Jeff Sessions to become the new attorney general, Rep....

We should probably think of this as an exercise in managing our expectations heading into next year’s congressional battles. Two days after the election I posed a question to the Republican Party leadership: we’ve given you control of the entire federal government. Now what will you do with it? The answer will largely depend on what happens in the Senate. Trump can, if he wishes, undo many of Obama’s executive actions with the stroke of a pen and Republicans will largely control what bills come up for a vote in both the House and Senate. But activity in the...

Republicans are vowing that President Trump’s appointment of a Supreme Court Justice to replace the late Justice Scalia will be confirmed no matter what Democrats do. Politico reports the unspoken threat underlying the GOP’s confidence is that, if necessary, they can end the Senate filibuster for confirmation: Republicans won’t come out and say it, but there’s an implicit threat in their confidence: If Democrats play things the wrong way, they might find themselves on the wrong end of a legacy-defining change to Senate rules that scraps the chamber’s 60-vote threshold to confirm Supreme Court nominees. “We’re going to confirm the...

Come January, Republicans will control all three branches of government, but with only 52 Republicans in the Senate. That will not give them the 60 needed to break a Democrat filibuster. Appearing on various Sunday talk shows, Schumer was asked if Senate Democrats will filibuster Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, whoever it may be. “I would hope first and foremost that President Trump nominates a mainstream nominee capable of getting bipartisan support,” Schumer told Fox News Sunday.“If he does, then we’ll give it just a very, very thorough vetting, but we won’t ipso facto say no. If it’s out of the...

Incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he wants President-elect Trump to select a "mainstream" candidate to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Asked by NBC on Sunday whether he was comfortable filibustering any Trump nominee for the court, Schumer dodged answering the question directly. "I hope that President Trump picks a mainstream candidate," Schumer said. "A mainstream candidate is somebody you may not agree with on every issue, but basically believes in precedent." NBC's Chuck Todd interrupted Schumer and asked, "What does that mean? Can he nominate somebody in your mind...

Senate Democrats are not going to be able to block Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions bid to become attorney general. And they can’t do much to stop Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo from assuming the helm of the CIA. And they have only themselves to thank for it. That’s because exactly three years ago, the Democratic Senate majority — led by Harry Reid (Nev.) — rammed through controversial rules fundamentally changing the way the Senate does business. They unleashed in November 2013 what’s called the “nuclear option” allowing senators to approve by a simple majority all presidential appointments to the executive branch...

A senate rule change championed by outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid could leave Democrats powerless to stop any of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet appointments. In 2013, Sen. Reid and other Democrats pushed forward with a rule change dubbed the “nuclear option” to eliminate filibusters for all presidential nominations except Supreme Court justices. This means that a simple majority of 51 votes instead of 60 votes is necessary to confirm executive office appointments. The Republicans are set to enter 2017 with at least 51 senators and can gain another seat with a likely win in the December senate run-off race...

Senate Democrats are not going to be able to block Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions bid to become attorney general. And they can’t do much to stop Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo from assuming the helm of the CIA. And they have only themselves to thank for it. That’s because exactly three years ago, the Democratic Senate majority — led by Harry Reid (Nev.) — rammed through controversial rules fundamentally changing the way the Senate does business. They unleashed in November 2013 what’s called the “nuclear option” allowing senators to approve by a simple majority all presidential appointments to the executive branch...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hinted Wednesday that he doesn’t support the controversial idea of changing Senate rules to kill Democratic filibusters, and instead indicated that this move might be seen as an overreach by Republicans. When Democrats ran the Senate, they changed the rules to allow for simple majority votes for judicial nominees, but not Supreme Court nominees, which can still be filibustered. But despite speculation that Republicans will take this next step, McConnell indicated some resistance to it when asked. He said “overreaching after an election, generally speaking, is a mistake.” And when pressed on McConnell’s approach to...

In her Saban Forum speech today, Hillary Clinton announced that if Iran breaks Obama's deal that the USA must keep the Nuclear Option on the table. Justice Breyer interjects, "correcting" her to say that the "Military Option" must remain on the table. The news media runs only the Breyer version, scrubbing Hillary's "Nuclear Option" quote...editing her speech to say "Military Option" instead of what she actually uttered.

Trump gave a great statement today to MSNBC about the Iran deal, saying Obama negotiated from desperation, that we shouldn’t be giving Iran any money, and that we should have at least gotten back our four Americans being held in prison in Iran. Trump says the deal is terrible, because without immediate inspections, we’ve got nothing and the Iranians know it.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) attempt to pass an amendment to halt President Obama's Iran deal by demanding the release of four American hostages in Iran and to recognize Israel's right to exist has been rejected by Democrats. Senators voted 53-45 on an amendment from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that would have prevented President Obama from lifting sanctions on Iran until the country releases American prisoners and publicly recognizes Israel's right to exist. Sixty votes were needed to move forward. Many conservatives have argued that the Obama administration is putting Israel's security at risk by giving Iran a...