Just after 7 p.m. Sunday morning U.S. President Donald Trump issued a tweet urging his fellow Republicans to use the “Nuclear Option” to end the government shutdown.
“If stalemate continues, Republicans should go to 51% (Nuclear Option) and vote on real, long term budget, no C.R.’s!” Trump wrote.
Unfortunately for Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was quick to dismiss the suggestion.
“The Republican Conference opposes changing the rules on legislation,” a spokesman for McConnell told Reuters in an email.
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Current Senate rules require a super-majority of two-thirds for appropriations bills to pass. Currently that would mean 60 of 100 Senators to pass but the Republicans own a simple majority of 51.
WATCH: White House says Democrats having ‘tantra tantrum’ with shutdown
Perhaps, McConnell is looking ahead to the 2018 mid-term elections where the GOP could easily lose its slim majority in the Senate.
The U.S. government shutdown began at midnight Friday evening when the Senate was unable to pass a funding extension
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The shutdown will only partially curb government operations. Uniformed service members, health inspectors, and law enforcement officers are set to work without pay.
Democrats tried to use the Friday night funding deadline to win concessions from Republicans, including an extension of an Obama-era program protecting some young immigrants from deportation. The program is set to expire in March. Republicans sought more time for talks, but Democrats refused.
The shutdown, only the fourth government closure in a quarter-century, comes on the one-year-anniversary of Trump’s inauguration.
WATCH: Chuck Schumer calls government shutdown the ‘Trump shutdown’
While Trump and the Republicans have attempted to cast the blame on Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, #trumpshutdown was trending on Twitter on Saturday morning.
READ MORE: Donald Trump placed blame solely on president during last government shutdown
Perhaps Trump was clairvoyant when he blamed former U.S. president Barack Obama for the last shutdown in 2013.
*With files from The Associated Press
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