In a visit to Kentucky’s fourth-most populous city of Owensboro, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) warned that Democrats could add four new Democratic senators if the filibuster is removed and Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., achieve statehood.
His comments came at a luncheon in his honor on Tuesday.
McConnell said, “They’ll admit the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico as two new states — that’s four Democratic senators in perpetuity — and then they’ll go after the Supreme Court.” The senior senator endorsed the filibuster in a prior statement, saying it’s good for killing bad ideas and forces ideas to be bipartisan.
“That’s how Democrats are these days, and that’s why you can’t find them in our state anymore,” he continued. “And it’s not just us; most of the states between the coasts have become much more Republican because the Democrats have moved so far left.”
It’s unlikely the filibuster will be removed, and repeated attempts to do so have been rebuffed. However, independent Senators Joe Manchin (I-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) are departing Congress as Democrat-caucusing senators who supported the filibuster. If Democrats can grab a Senate majority, the filibuster could be in danger.