Presidential candidate and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D.) endorsed ending the filibuster and using executive orders to address the gun issue Sunday night on MSNBC. The senator's comments came in the wake of two mass shootings in El Paso, Texas. and Dayton, Ohio over the past weekend.
"We get rid of the filibuster and go with the majority vote," she told MSNBC host Kasie Hunt.
Hunt asked Warren what she would do differently as president to get gun control initiatives passed.
"Part of it I'm willing to attack the corruption head-on, including the corruption of the gun manufacturers that hire all the lobbyists that call the shots in Washington," Warren responded. "But the second part is remember, six years ago the Senate passed by a vote of 54-46 background checks. I say they passed. That was the majority, but not with a filibuster in place. It wasn't good enough to get the job done."
"On the first day I'm president, the Republicans want to try to block things, then we get rid of the filibuster and we go with the majority vote."
"I take your point, but a president can't end a filibuster by themselves," Hunt pointed out.
"But a president can certainly call for it, and the president can certainly lead the charge, and the president right now as a candidate can run on it," Warren responded. "I will do everything I can by executive order, but I will also lead on the argument of getting rid of the filibuster so that by a majority we can do what the American people have sent us there to do."
"The filibuster is blocking action on guns. It's part of the way that the gun manufacturers hold Congress in thrall, and we've got to stop that," Warren added.
President Donald Trump has called for the end of the filibuster and urged Republicans to do it before Democrats.
Earlier this year, Warren told Al Sharpton's National Action Network she would eliminate the filibuster due to it being used as a tool to stop major Democratic policy proposals.
Warren's fellow presidential candidate Washington Gov. Jay Inslee also said that he would eliminate the filibuster in order to address climate change.