Mitch McConnell Warns of ‘Nightmare’ if Democrats End Filibuster: ‘Scorched-Earth Senate Would Hardly Be Able to Function’

US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks during a news conference with other Senat
CAROLINE BREHMAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) warned of a “nightmare” in the Senate if Democrats end the filibuster, cautioning that a “scorched-earth Senate would hardly be able to function.”

“Today, I made clear that if Democrats ever attack the key Senate rules, it would drain the consent and comity out of the institution. A scorched-earth Senate would hardly be able to function,” McConnell said late Tuesday.

“It wouldn’t be a progressive’s dream. It would be a nightmare,” he continued. “I guarantee it”:

In another tweet, McConnell linked to the remarks he made on the Senate floor on Tuesday, highlighting the two Democrat senators — Sens. Joe Manchin. (D-WV), and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), who have indicated that they will not vote to eliminate the legislative filibuster.

“Mr. President, yesterday two Democratic senators confirmed they will not provide the votes to eliminate the legislative filibuster,” McConnell said.

“Now it should not be news that a few members of the majority pledge they won’t tear up a central rule, but the Democratic leader was reluctant to repeat the step I took as majority leader in unified government when I ruled out that step on principle,” he continued.

McConnell said the “victory” would allow the Senate to “move forward with a 50-50 power-sharing agreement containing all the elements of the 2001 model, because it will sit on the very same foundation.”

He also expressed relief that the Senate had “stepped back” from taking a plunge which “would not be some progressive dream” but a “nightmare”:

Notable far-left Democrats quickly criticized McConnell’s remarks.

“You lost all credibility when you stole a Supreme Court seat,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) quipped. “The filibuster is a Jim Crow relic. It represents everything wrong with Washington. Abolish it”:

“Will you…refuse to hold a vote on a Supreme Court justice nominated by a Dem president? Or jam through a replacement to RBG days before an election?” former Hillary Clinton adviser Zac Petkanas asked. “Or spend a week blocking Dems from taking control of the senate?”

“Trembling about your threat of FUTURE scorched earth tactics,” he added:

McConnell was among the 45 GOP senators who formally questioned the constitutionality of proceeding with the impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump, indicating that the forthcoming trial, as Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) described it, is “dead on arrival.”

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