“If you don’t have 60 votes yet, it just means you haven’t done enough advocacy, and you need to work a lot harder.” -- Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Jan 2019
"I rise today to urge my colleagues to think about the implications the nuclear option would have on this chamber and this country. I urge you to think not just about winning every debate, but about protecting free and democratic debate." -- Barack Obama, 2005
“[Ending the filibuster] would be the end of the Senate as it was originally devised and created going back to our Founding Fathers.” - Dick Durbin, 2018
"At its core, the filibuster is not about stopping a nominee or a bill, it's about compromise and moderation. The nuclear option extinguishes the power of independents and moderates in the Senate." - Joe Biden 2005
“The ideologues in the Senate want to turn what the Founding Fathers called ‘the cooling saucer of democracy’ into the rubber stamp of dictatorship. We will not let them...
...They want to make this country into a banana republic, where if you don’t get your way, you change the rules. Are we going to let them? It’ll be a doomsday for democracy if we do.” Chuck Schumer, 2005
“We are writing to urge you to support our efforts to preserve existing rules, practices, and traditions as they pertain to the right of Members to engage in extended debate on legislation before the United States Senate.” 32 Dem senators in 2017
Also from Obama: "... this chamber knows that if the majority chooses to end the filibuster — if they choose to change the rules and put an end to democratic debate — then the fighting and the bitterness and the gridlock will only get worse."
“I think we should have the filibuster in place. You have to have a consensus. I would’ve liked to see 60 votes. I don’t think we should’ve made that change." - Klobuchar
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