“As I’ve told him repeatedly, the votes aren’t there to change it,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). | Ralph Alswang/POLITICO McConnell to Trump: The filibuster is here to stay The majority leader told POLITICO Playbook that the votes aren’t there to eliminate the Senate’s 60-vote threshold on legislation.

Some things never change.

President Donald Trump continues to plead for the end of the legislative filibuster, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell keeps saying no.


“As I’ve told him repeatedly, the votes aren’t there to change it,” the Republican leader told POLITICO Playbook’s Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman in an interview Wednesday. “They just aren’t there. It’s not just me.”

The president’s latest call to eliminate the 60-vote threshold to shepherd through legislation came during a private meeting Tuesday with House and Senate Republicans, with Trump telling lawmakers to change the rules before Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) does.

McConnell, however, sees no need.

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The Kentucky Republican, who this month became the longest-serving GOP Senate leader, touted Trump’s presidency as the best year and a half for the GOP since he first came to the Senate in 1985 — noting the passage of massive tax cuts and confirmation of a string of conservative judges, including Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.

“So the president has much to be pleased about,” McConnell said. “I don’t think the legislative filibuster, which has been around for a long time, is a problem. And it does, I think, generate on many occasions kind of a bipartisan solution, and I don’t think that’s always bad for the country. We do have some pretty big differences about a number of things, but there are a lot of things we do together.”

The GOP leader estimated that two-thirds of his caucus would oppose ending the legislative filibuster. And they would likely be joined by all Democrats. But in addition to Republicans lacking the votes, McConnell is also taking the long view, acknowledging that the GOP won’t always hold the majority.

“I think both sides, having been up and down a number of times, understand the advantages when you’re not in the majority,” he said of the filibuster. “What I remind the president of occasionally when we have this discussion is but for that we would have socialized medicine [and] right-to-work would have been eliminated across the country.”

In the nearly 45-minute interview, McConnell also acknowledged disagreements between the president and some Senate Republicans on issues such as tariffs and immigration.

Republican Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania are pushing an amendment that would allow Congress to approve or disapprove of tariffs levied against countries on national security justifications.

McConnell said it’s unclear whether that measure will come up for debate on the farm bill the chamber is considering.

“I simply don’t know whether there’s gonna be a vote on the Corker proposal,” McConnell said. “I don’t object to having the vote, but I don’t know at the beginning of this process what’s gonna happen.”

A small group of senators also is working on legislation to address migrant family separations at the southern border. The Senate took up immigration legislation in February, but not a single measure mustered enough votes for passage, including the White House’s proposal.

“I’m in favor of addressing that narrowly and fixing it,” McConnell said of the family separations. “I hear the House may try to pass something along those lines, so if we can’t do comprehensive [immigration reform] … let’s at least fix some of the glaring problems at the border with the children reunification issue and do it quickly.”

McConnell declined to predict how either chamber will look after the midterms. But he insisted every Republican candidate is electable and highlighted Montana, North Dakota, Missouri, Indiana and West Virginia as competitive states where Senate Republicans are on offense; the party is defending competitive seats in Arizona, Nevada and Tennessee, he said.

“But I still am not falling in love with the map or thinking the map alone is going to deliver this,” McConnell added, referring to the fact that Republicans are only defending nine seats while Democrats have 24 seats up this year. “Every one of these are gonna be a knockdown, drag-out, eye-gouging, shin-kicking contest all the way to the finish.”