McConnell: VP Harris’ Willingness To Throw Away Senate’s Guardrails As Disqualifying As Her Record

'There is nothing normal or rational about blowing up the dam holding back simple majority rule. And the fact that a major political party has welcomed this short-sighted radicalism into the mainstream will be to their eternal shame. To lean on today's fill-in-the-blank justification is to miss entirely what's at stake. The Senate's protections against the vacillations of simple majority rule are bigger than Washington Democrats' policy preferences.'

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding the filibuster:

"'I am prepared to get rid of the filibuster to pass a Green New Deal.'

"'I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe.'

"These are the words of the Vice President of the United States and the Democratic nominee for President.

"Her willingness to shatter the institution of the Senate is not unique. Nearly every single one of our Democratic colleagues was willing to do it two years ago. And they would have succeeded had two members of their own caucus not stood in the breach.

"Nor is this campaign to rip up precious safeguards for political minorities confined here to the Senate. From a sitting President all the way down to grassroots activists, Democrats have made smashing institutions a core pillar of their party's platform.

"The Vice President's latest comments are not novel. But they are shocking - no less so than the votes our colleagues cast here on January 19, 2022.

"There is nothing normal or rational about blowing up the dam holding back simple majority rule. And the fact that a major political party has welcomed this short-sighted radicalism into the mainstream will be to their eternal shame.

"To lean on today's fill-in-the-blank justification is to miss entirely what's at stake. The Senate's protections against the vacillations of simple majority rule are bigger than Washington Democrats' policy preferences. They're bigger than my own.

"A Senate that can steamroll a legislative minority to codify Roe v. Wade or enshrine the lunacy of the Green New Deal into law…

"…is a Senate that will drive a stake through liberal hopes as soon as the political winds change.

"To gamble the guardrails that make the Senate what it is… To short-circuit the process by which dissenting views are guaranteed a hearing… That ought to be disqualifying, by itself.

"Then again, so should the Vice President's record on the issues.

"In November, the Democratic nominee will own the worst border crisis in American history, and the broken policies that invited it.

"She will own the worst inflation in forty years, and the reckless spending and tie-breaking votes that enabled it.

"The American people may well worry, like I do, about the future of an institution designed to be the world's greatest deliberative body.

"But more than that, they worry about keeping their families safe and putting food on the table. And I expect they'll vote accordingly."

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