On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) argued that the shutdown is the fault of Republicans because they can just change the rules to get around Democrats filibustering.
Host Lawrence O’Donnell said, “[O]n the Senate side, if the Republicans want to, they can just change the Senate rule that has been putting them through a 60-vote threshold on this thing. They can just change it, right away, with a majority vote of Republicans, and then just pass it with Republican votes. There’s nothing stopping them in the Senate from doing that.”
Frost responded, “Exactly. But they know, and the leader over there, Sen. John Thune (R-SD), knows that, if he were to do something like that, he’s setting a standard that even he himself doesn’t want to set when the balance of power may change in one year or three years, and it’s — that’s probably something that’s very top of mind for them as well.”
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