Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Wednesday that Senate Republicans don’t have the votes to end the upper chamber’s filibuster rule after President Donald Trump called for the procedure’s termination amid the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
In an interview with The Daily Caller, Thune was asked about Trump’s calls to end the filibuster, which would remove a 60-vote hurdle to pass any measure, in order to end the shutdown and pass measures to advance his administration’s policies.
“The practical reality of it is … that there just aren’t the votes in the Senate, and for that matter, not even close,” Thune said….