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Sen. Coons Blames GOP for Rule Change Made By Democrats

December 8, 2016

Sen. Chris Coons (D., Del.) blamed Senate Republicans for a rule change that was made by their Democratic counterparts during an interview on Thursday.

The rule change in question was pushed through by Senate Democrats in 2013 when they controlled the chamber. The change was known as the "nuclear option" and lowered the necessary threshold to approve many presidential nominations from 60 votes to a simple majority of 51 votes. The change does not apply to Supreme Court nominations.

CNN host John Berman asked Coons about what he said in a prior interview last month during which he said he regretted the rule change.

"Well, let me be clear about that comment, what I regretted was that then Minority Leader [Mitch] McConnell so overused the filibuster to block every major nominee by the Obama administration to the D.C. Circuit, to the NLRB, and to many other vital posts, that we ultimately as a Democratic Caucus felt compelled to make that change," Coons said.

"What I regretted was that we had a dysfunctional senate where the minority leader and minority caucus at the time, the Republican Caucus, so thoroughly and effectively misused the filibuster to block President Obama that we ultimately took the step of changing that rule in the Senate," Coons continued.

Back in 2013, some observers warned Senate Democrats against going ahead with the change, saying that Republicans could use it against them when they had a majority and the presidency.

Published under: Senate Democrats