‘Free Beacon’ Montage: Liberals Loved Nuking the Filibuster in 2013

FLASHBACK: Liberals Loved Nuking the Senate Filibuster in 2013 (The Washington Free Beacon)

In November 2013, then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) helped lead a major rule change in the chamber called the “nuclear option” that liberals cheered at the time but are ruing three years later.

Now, President-elect Donald Trump, with a Republican Senate, can have his appointments confirmed with a simple majority because of that rule change. Democrats have vowed to stall action on Trump’s Cabinet nominations, but they don’t have the votes to stop their confirmations.

The nuclear option measure, which all Republicans opposed in 2013, effectively left the then-minority Republicans powerless to stop President Obama’s executive and judicial nominees, changing the threshold from the former filibuster-proof 60 votes to a simple majority of 51.