唐纳德·特朗普总统周三从白宫返回后又一次呼吁参议院共和党人推翻阻挠议事多数党领袖约翰·图恩重申了他的观点参议院共和党人没有足够的票数来改变参议院的规则。
图恩周三被问及他是否认为特朗普可以说服一些不情愿的成员支持阻挠议事。
“我不怀疑他能对议员们产生一些影响，”图恩说。“但我知道参议院在这个问题上的立场...这是不可能的。”
图恩一直直言不讳地捍卫参议院的规定，即大多数立法事项需要60票才能通过。但他不是唯一一个公开表示怀疑推翻该规则的共和党人。
共和党参议员迈克·朗斯(Mike Rounds)是在一个激烈的选举之夜后与特朗普在白宫共进早餐的共和党人之一目睹了民主党在几场比赛中的胜利。会后，Rounds说，总统就共和党人改变规则提出了“一个非常好的观点”。但他没有被说服。
“我认为我们中有很多人真的认为参议院最初是为了找到长期、稳定的问题解决方案而设计的，所以我们会听取总统的意见，”Rounds说。
共和党参议员约翰·肯尼迪称阻挠议事是“重要的”。
“我的立场没有改变，”肯尼迪周三表示。“正如我以前说过的，参议员的角色不仅仅是提出好的想法。参议员的作用是扼杀坏主意。当你是少数派的时候，我们现在不是，但有一天我们会是，有一个阻挠议事是很重要的。”
共和党参议员托姆·蒂利斯说，他对阻挠议事的观点没有改变。
“没有什么能让我在阻挠议事上动摇，”蒂利斯说。“我这样已经11年了。年纪大了，现在改不了。”
其他立法者说他们可以被说服结束阻挠议事。
共和党参议员约翰·科宁多年来一直是阻挠议事的直言不讳的被告。周三，他告诉记者，“我对改变阻挠议事持开放态度。”
Cornyn说，他在这个问题上的想法正在改变，因为“事实是，我们已经有一段时间无法进行常规的订单拨款”和“有少数人能够在任何时候关闭政府。”
共和党参议员乔希·霍利(Josh Hawley)也表示，政府关门开始改变他对该规则的态度。
“我的信息是给我的民主党朋友;我们最好想办法尽快赶到餐桌。因为如果你让我在是人们要吃东西，还是我要捍卫晦涩难懂的阻挠议事规则之间做出选择，我会选择人们吃东西。因此，我们正在快速实现这一目标，”霍利说。
图恩表示，特朗普“真诚地相信”结束阻挠议事，但随后又转向，称重点应该是重新开放政府-截至周三，政府已经关闭了36天，成为历史上最长的政府关闭。
他被问及是否同意特朗普的评估，即政府关门对周二选举期间的共和党人产生了负面影响。他说“很难下结论”
“嗯，我的意思是，在北弗吉尼亚，可能。我不确定，”图恩在谈到弗吉尼亚州的选举时说民主的胜利州长、副州长和司法部长竞选。“很明显，这是弗吉尼亚北部的一个社区，有很多联邦工作人员。因此这当然可能是选举中的一个因素。"
图恩说，选举失败“几乎是意料之中的”
“所以我认为，你知道，我们前进的挑战是确保我们谈论的是美国人民关心的问题——经济问题。”
民主党领袖查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)周三早上在参议院获胜，他说，选举结果证明，共和党人应该与民主党人就结束关闭进行谈判。
“昨晚对美国来说是一个伟大的夜晚，对唐纳德·特朗普和共和党人来说是一场五级火警。共和党的高成本众议院着火了，他们只能怪自己，”舒默在地板上说。“昨晚，美国人民尽可能大声、清晰地说，‘够了。’"
舒默和众议院民主党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯(Hakeem Jeffries)在给特朗普的一封信中，要求与共和党人举行两党会议，以结束关闭状态，解决“共和党医疗保健危机”。
舒默和杰弗里斯在整个关闭期间一再要求两党谈判。
舒默周三在发言中说:“是时候坐下来与民主党人谈判，以结束共和党的关门状态了。”“我们告诉总统，我们已经要求会晤几周甚至几个月了，但现在选举结果应该会向唐纳德·特朗普发出急需的闪电，他应该与我们会面，以结束这场危机。”
Thune says ending filibuster 'not happening' despite Trump's demands
Returning from the White House Wednesday after President Donald Trump madeyet another call for Senate Republicans to overturn the filibuster, Majority Leader John Thunereiterated his viewthat there are not the necessary votes among Senate Republicans to change the Senate rules.
Thune was asked Wednesday if he believed that Trump could sway some of his reluctant members to support the filibuster.
"I don't doubt that he could have some sway with members," Thune said. "But I know where the math is on this issue in the Senate, and ... it's just not happening."
Thune has been an outspoken defender of the Senate's rule requiring 60 votes to pass most legislative matters. But he's not the only Republican who has publicly expressed skepticism about overturning the rule.
Republican Sen. Mike Rounds was among the group of Republicans who met with Trump for breakfast at the White House after a bruising election night, whichsaw Democratic victories in several races. After the meeting, Rounds said that the president made "a really good point" about Republicans changing the rule. But he wasn't sold.
"I think there's a lot of us that really think the Senate was designed in the first place to find a long term, stable solution to problems, so we'll listen to what the president has to say," Rounds said.
GOP Sen. John Kennedy called the filibuster "important."
"My position hasn't changed," Kennedy said Wednesday. "As I've said before, the role of a senator is not just to advance good ideas. The role of a senator it to kill bad ideas. And when you're in the minority, we're not now, but we could be someday, it's important to have a filibuster."
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said his views on the filibuster aren't changing.
"There's nothing that could move me on the filibuster," Tillis said. "I've been that way for 11 years. Too old to change now."
Other lawmakers said they they could be persuaded to end the filibuster.
GOP Sen. John Cornyn has been an outspoken defendant of the filibuster for years. On Wednesday, he told reporters, "I'm open to changing the filibuster."
Cornyn said his mind is being changed on this issue by the "fact that we haven't been able to do regular order appropriations for a while" and "having a willful minority being able to shut down the government at any time they want to."
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley also said the shutdown was beginning to change his tune on the rule.
"My message is to my Democrat friends; we better find a way to get to the table real fast. Because if you're putting me to a choice between, are people going to eat, or am I going to defend the arcane filibuster rules, I'm going to choose people eating. So, we're getting there real fast," Hawley said.
Thune said Trump "honestly believes" in ending the filibuster, but then pivoted, saying the focus should be on reopening the government -- which has been shut down for 36 days as of Wednesday, making it the longest government shutdown in history.
He was asked whether he agreed with Trump's assessment that the government shutdown negatively affected Republicans during Tuesday's election. He said it was "hard to draw conclusions."
"Well, I mean, here in Northern Virginia, possibly. I don't know for sure," Thune said of the Virginia election, which sawDemocratic victoriesfor the governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general races. "This is a community here, obviously, in Northern Virginia, that has a lot of federal workers. Soit certainly could have been a factor in the elections."
The election losses, Thune said, were "pretty much expected."
"So I think that, you know, the challenge for us going forward is to make sure we are speaking to the issues the American people care about -- the economic issues."
Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer took a victory lap on the Senate floor Wednesday morning, saying the election results prove that it's time for Republicans to negotiate with Democrats on ending the shutdown.
"Last night was a great night for America and a five-alarm fire for Donald Trump and Republicans.The Republicans' high-cost house is on fire, and they've only got themselves to blame," Schumer said on the floor."As loudly and clearly as they could have, the American people said last night, 'Enough is enough.'"
Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, in a new letter addressed to Trump, are demanding a bipartisan meeting with Republicans to end the shutdown and address the "Republican health care crisis."
Schumer and Jeffries have repeatedly requested bipartisan negotiations throughout the shutdown.
"It is time to sit down and negotiate with Democrats to bring this Republican shutdown to an end," Schumer said on the floor Wednesday. "We told the president we've been asking for a meeting for weeks and even months, but now the election results ought to send a much needed bolt of lightning to Donald Trump that he should meet with us to end this crisis."
