Trump rails against Senate rules in wake of health care defeat

ByKATHERINE FAULDERS ABCNews logo
Sunday, July 30, 2017
Trump rails against Senate rules in wake of health care defeat
Trump rails against Senate rules in wake of health care defeat. Sarah Bloomquist reports during Action News at 6 p.m. on July 29, 2017.

President Trump took to Twitter to bash U.S. Senate rules in the wake of the GOP Senate leadership's failure to pass any of the bills put forward to end Obamacare.

Trump in a series of tweets Saturday morning slammed the rule requiring 60 votes on some measures, saying the Senate "must get rid of 60 vote NOW!," contending that it allows a small number of Democrats to "control country."

The tweets today continue a theme that the president began early Friday and come after the Republican Senate leaders failed later on Friday to get even the 50 votes needed to push through a so-called "skinny repeal" of the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare.

Trump also went after what he called "the very outdated filibuster rule" in the Senate.

GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell has previously shown no inclination to change Senate rules.

McConnell was asked in a May 2 press conference about the president's call to change the rules to allow a simple majority in the Senate to pass bills that now require 60 votes.

"There is an overwhelming majority on a bipartisan basis not interested in changing the way the Senate operates ... and that will not happen," McConnell said at the time. "It would fundamentally change the way the Senate has worked for a very long time. We're not going to do that."

Related Topics