Fetterman says ‘hypocritical’ for Democrats to defend filibuster over shutdown

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said he thinks it’s “hypocritical” for Democrats to defend the filibuster after campaigning on carving out exceptions to the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to pass legislation.

“I think it would be rather hypocritical for us as a party now to suddenly love the filibuster,” Fetterman told Cory Smith and Hillary Howard on “Sunrise on the Hill” on Wednesday.

“In that cycle that I ran, all of us ran on getting rid of the filibuster to enact exactly parts of our agenda. And now we can't pretend that we love it or pretend we just were in a much different situation just a couple years ago,” he continued.

Fetterman on told reporters Tuesday that he would support Republicans using the so-called nuclear option to override the Senate filibuster to pass a bill to reopen the government.

The so-called nuclear option would let Senate Republicans pass a House-passed funding measure with a simple majority vote, rather than the 60-vote threshold generally needed to get legislation in the upper chamber to the president’s desk.

Fetterman said the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is running out of money and people “need to eat” as the government enters its fourth week without funding.

Parties have opted for filibuster “carveouts” in the past for various agenda items, including passing judicial nominees, and the Democratic senator said ensuring the government remains open ought to reach the threshold of issues important enough to be granted an exception.

“And I do think carving it out makes sense, too, because it would make it virtually impossible for either party, Republican or Democrats, to shut it down,” if only a simple majority were required, Fetterman said.

“It’s irresponsible to shut our government down, just when the Republicans did this back multiple times, and now we are doing this at this point,” he added.