30 Senate Dems, Including Kamala Harris, Signed Plea To Keep Filibuster In 2017. What’s Changed?

Several Democratic senators are defending their votes to eliminate the filibuster less than five years after demanding that Republicans keep the procedure.

In a Wednesday vote, 46 Democrats and two Independents moved to ax the nearly 200-year-old filibuster, although they were ultimately unsuccessful in doing so. For 26 of those senators, the vote marked a complete reversal of their 2017 position.

In the 2017 letter addressed to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the senators argued that they wished “to preserve existing rules, practices, and traditions as they pertain to the right of Members to engage in extended debate on legislation” in an effort to ensure that the Senate “continues to serve as the world’s greatest deliberative body.”

At the time, President Donald Trump repeatedly urged McConnell to eliminate the filibuster to pass bills related to immigration and health care. McConnell refused, a position he has referenced several times during the current congressional session.