Senate GOP Stiffs Trump On Filibuster Border Wall Demands

Senate Republicans rejected President Donald Trump’s entreaties to eliminate the Senate filibuster to fund his border wall, the latest turn in a fraught battle over funding the government past Friday night’s shutdown deadline.

Senators were called back to Washington Friday to vote on the House’s spending bill and its border funding, a futile effort in the face of a Democratic filibuster that will leave the government on the brink of a partial shutdown. Trump called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for a White House meeting on Friday to hash it out.

Trump already thought he had a solution: urging McConnell to get rid of the filibuster to fund the border wall, even though McConnell has said repeatedly that would not happen.

“Mitch, use the Nuclear Option and get it done! Our Country is counting on you!” Trump tweeted on Friday morning.

Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said they won’t vote for a rules change, and neither will Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).

“I want to put a stop to this practice of the Senate breaking its rules to change its rules. I will not vote to turn the Senate into a rule-breaking institution and I hope that my colleagues will not,” Alexander said in a statement.