Anti-DEI Republican Helped Make Racial, Gender Ideology ‘Foundational’ At Prestigious School
'Grieve the killing of George Floyd'
How the Senate’s phony ‘deliberation’ crushes working Americans
The United States Senate is broken, and most Americans know it — including President Donald Trump. A chamber that once passed laws with a simple 51-vote majority, a practice that held for more than a century, now demands 60 votes for nearly anything of consequence.
Defenders call this the “world’s greatest deliberative body,” guarding minority rights. In reality, the 60-vote threshold is a rule the Senate invented in the last century — and one it can discard tomorrow.
The filibuster transformed from a test of stamina into a tool for avoiding hard votes — and, today, a convenient excuse to delay or kill the America First agenda.
Article I lists exactly seven situations that require a supermajority: overriding vetoes, ratifying treaties, convicting in impeachment, expelling members, proposing constitutional amendments, and two obscure quorum rules. Passing ordinary legislation is not on the list.
The Senate’s tradition of unlimited debate — the seed of modern filibusters — wasn’t designed to create a supermajority requirement. It was an accident.
In 1806, on Aaron Burr’s suggestion that the Senate rulebook was cluttered, the chamber deleted the “previous question” motion, the mechanism the House still uses to end debate and vote. No one understood the implications at the time. Filibusters didn’t appear until the 1830s, and even then they were rare because they required real endurance. Senators had to speak nonstop, often for days, until they collapsed or yielded.
How the filibuster became a weapon
Everything changed in 1917. After 11 anti-war senators filibustered Woodrow Wilson’s bill to arm merchant ships on the eve of World War I, the public revolted. Wilson demanded action. The Senate responded by creating Rule XXII — the first cloture rule — allowing two-thirds of senators to end debate.
Instead of restraining obstruction, the rule supercharged it. For the first time, a minority didn’t need to speak until exhaustion. They only needed to threaten it. The majority now had to assemble a supermajority to progress.
The filibuster transformed from a test of stamina into a tool for avoiding hard votes — and, today, a convenient excuse to delay or kill the America First agenda.
The Senate has rewritten its filibuster rule many times since. In 1975, it lowered the cloture threshold from two-thirds to three-fifths (60 votes). In 2013, Democrats eliminated the filibuster for most presidential nominees; in 2017, Republicans applied that same exception to Supreme Court justices.
These changes all point to the same reality: The filibuster is not a sacred tradition. It is a standing rule, created and amended by simple-majority votes. The Senate can change it again any time.
The myth of ‘unprecedented change’
Filibuster defenders insist that ending the 60-vote rule would be radical.
It wouldn’t. In reality, it would restore the practice that governed the Senate for its first 128 years — unlimited debate, yes, but no supermajority threshold for passing laws.
RELATED: Democrats reject ‘current policy’ — unless it pays their base
Defenders also claim the filibuster forces compromise. History says otherwise. The biggest legislative achievements of the last century — Social Security, the Civil Rights Act, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — all passed when the filibuster was weakened, bypassed, or irrelevant.
What we have now is not deliberation. It is paralysis: a rule that allows 41 senators, representing as little as 11% of the country, to veto the will of the rest. The Senate already protects small states through equal representation and long tenures. Adding a 60-vote requirement for routine governance is not what the framers intended.
The fix
The solution is straightforward. The Senate can return to simple-majority voting for legislation. It can keep unlimited debate if it wishes — but require a real talking filibuster that ends when the minority runs out of arguments or public patience. Or it can leave the system as it is now and watch President Trump’s America First agenda stall for another generation.
The filibuster is not a 230-year constitutional safeguard. It is a 108-year experiment born in 1917 — and it has failed. The Senate invented it. The Senate can un-invent it.
GOP lawmaker throws a wrench into contested Senate primary in Texas
The Republican primary for the competitive U.S. Senate seat in Texas just got more crowded, thanks to one GOP lawmaker.
Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas officially launched his Senate campaign on Monday to unseat Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. Cornyn has already spent the last several months campaigning against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who launched his own Senate campaign in April.
'There will be a full vetting of his record.'
Although the Republican primary was already poised to be a close race, with a slight edge for Paxton, Hunt's candidacy complicates the political calculus.
"The time is NOW," Hunt said in his campaign announcement. "For Faith. For Family. For Freedom. FOR TEXAS. I’m Wesley Hunt, and I’m running for Senate."
RELATED: Conservative firebrand Chip Roy bids Congress farewell, targets new political venture
Hunt's candidacy has already caused an uproar, with the National Republican Senatorial Committee claiming the congressman has chosen "personal ambition" over holding the narrow Republican majority in the House.
“John Cornyn is a battle-tested conservative who continues to be a leader in delivering President Trump’s agenda in the U.S. Senate, and he’s the best candidate to keep Texas in the Republican Senate majority," NRSC communications director Joanna Rodriguez said in a statement. "Now that Wesley has chosen personal ambition over holding President Trump's House majority, there will be a full vetting of his record. Senator Cornyn's conservative record of accomplishment stands tall against Wesley’s."
RELATED: White House dares Democrats with nuclear response to looming shutdown
Notably, early polls show that Hunt's candidacy weakens Cornyn's odds of winning re-election. In a two-way race between Cornyn and Paxton, RealClearPolling averages show the incumbent at a 2.3-point disadvantage. However, in a three-way race between Cornyn, Paxton, and Hunt, the senator is facing an average four-point disadvantage.
Although Hunt is polling significantly behind both Paxton and Cornyn, it's likely that he would act as a spoiler candidate for the incumbent, widening Paxton's lead in the race.
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Vance casts tiebreaking vote after Republicans betray Trump's 'big, beautiful bill'
President Donald Trump is getting closer to codifying the first landmark legislation of his second term, but the fight is not over.
After a record-breaking 27-hour voting marathon, the Senate narrowly passed Trump's "big, beautiful bill" in a 51-50 vote. Vice President JD Vance cast the tiebreaking vote after three Senate Republicans — Susan Collins of Maine, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, and Rand Paul of Kentucky — voted against the legislation.
'This performative theatre won’t solve the problem.'
The bill is now headed back to the House, where lawmakers will scramble to meet the president's ambitious July 4 deadline.
This deadline will not be easy to meet. During the drawn-out vote-a-rama, several key provisions failed to make it into the Senate's final draft, raising concerns among House Republicans.
RELATED: GOP-controlled Senate keeps taxpayer dollars flowing to criminal aliens after parliamentarian's ruling
Several Republicans were outraged about one provision in particular. The Senate rejected an amendment that would reduce Medicaid funding for states that offer the social program to criminal aliens after the parliamentarian ruled against the provision, increasing the vote threshold from a simple majority to 60 votes.
RELATED: Republicans rage over Senate's ‘watered-down’ version of Trump's 'big, beautiful bill'
"If the Senate won’t do their job, DHS MUST," Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas said of the amendment. "Because this performative theatre won’t solve the problem. It’s great messaging, but it does nothing."
"Illegals should not get Medicaid," Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida said in a post on X. "This should not have to be said."
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Bill Maher warns Dems to do something about 'The View' after Whoopi Goldberg compares Iran to US; GOP rep blasts her response
Bill Maher advised Democrats to "do something" about "The View" after co-host Whoopi Goldberg made a controversial remark that compared Iran to the United States of America. Meanwhile, a GOP representative blasted Goldberg for attempting to compare life in the United States with life in Iran.
Last week, Goldberg stirred the pot by claiming that living under the brutal Iranian theocratic regime isn't much different from black people living in the United States.
'"The View" isn’t a talk show, it’s a weekly tantrum from the far-left padded room.'
The eyebrow-raising comment was made during a discussion about the conflict in Iran, when co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin pointed out that the oppressive Iranian regime has regularly violated human rights.
“Let’s just remember, too, the Iranians literally throw gay people off of buildings. They don’t adhere to basic human rights,” Griffin declared during the episode that aired last Wednesday.
The remark irritated Goldberg, who responded by saying, "Let’s not do that, because if we start with that, we have been known in this country to tie gay folks to the car. I’m sorry, they used to just keep hanging black people."
Griffin responded while Whoopi continued to talk over her.
"I'm sorry, but where the Iranian regime is today in 2025 is nothing compared to the United States," Griffin replied. "It is not even the same."
Goldberg argued, "It is the same." Then Whoopi told Griffin, "That's not what you mean to say."
Griffin countered, "The year 2025 in the United States is nothing like if I stepped foot wearing this outfit in Tehran right now."
Griffin noted that women cannot wear leg-revealing skirts or have their hair showing in Iran.
It is mandatory for women to wear a hijab to cover their hair in public spaces, and failing to do so is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, according to the United Nations.
"I think it’s very different to live in the United States in 2025 than it is to live in Iran in 2025," Griffin stated.
Goldberg interjected, "Not if you’re black."
"The View" co-host Sunny Hostin agreed, saying, "Not for everybody."
Griffin advised, "Uh, guys, don’t go to Tehran. Do not. No one at this table can go to Tehran.”
Whoopi admitted that the United States is "the greatest country in the world," but contended that black Americans face issues every day.
Goldberg said, "But every day, we are worried. Do we have to be worried about our kids? Are their kids going to get shot because they’re running through somebody’s neighborhood?”
Co-host Sara Haines added of females in Iran, "And they are not doing well there. They are not doing well in Iran. They are not educated. They can’t own property.”
Haines noted, “They can’t go out of their houses.”
Griffin conceded that there are "very real problems" in the United States, but there are "much darker" places in the world.
"Nobody wants to diminish the very real problems we have in this country," Griffin stated. "That is no one’s intent, but I think it’s important we remember there are places much darker than this country, and people who deserve rights …"
Goldberg butted in and said, "Listen, not everybody feels that way. Not everybody feels that way. Listen, I’m sorry, you know, when you think about the fact that we got the vote in 1965 …"
Griffin interrupted, "They don’t have free and fair elections in Iran. It’s not even the same universe."
Goldberg dropped out of the tense debate by saying, "There's no way I can make you understand."
Maher ridiculed "The View" for attempting to equate life in the authoritarian Islamic Republic of Iran with being a black American in the United States.
During the latest episode of "Real Time with Bill Maher," the liberal talk show host applauded Democrats for taking a step "back to sanity" after the New York Times shifted toward a more "sensible liberal, not crazy woke” position on transgender issues.
However, Maher noted that the Democrats have an issue with the progressive talking points spouted on "The View" and that "something" needs to be done about it.
Maher said it was a "great first step toward giving Democrats back some sanity." He added, "A second good step would be: We gotta do something about 'The View.' I really believe that."
'Honestly? Don’t cancel "The View." Add more cameras. More microphones. Maybe even a laugh track. Once you realize it’s basically an "SNL" skit of a left-wing meltdown, it becomes the greatest MAGA campaign ad on TV.'
Maher asked guest Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) for his opinion on Goldberg's remarks that black Americans have just as many issues as people in Iran.
Hunt reacted with a hearty laugh before stating, "My district in the great state of Texas is actually a white-majority district that President Trump would have won by 25 points."
"As I said, I’m a direct descendant of a slave, my great-great-grandfather, who was born on Rosedown Plantation," Hunt continued. "I am literally being judged not by the color of my skin but by the content of my character."
Hunt added, "That’s the progress, because, like, a lot of white people had to vote for me — a lot. So I don’t ever want to hear Whoopi Goldberg’s conversation about how it’s worse to be black in America right now. That's a bit far."
Hunt explained that his father grew up under Jim Crow but is now the father of a Republican U.S. congressman in a white-majority district.
"That is America," Hunt proclaimed. "So let's celebrate that."
Fellow guest Paul Begala, a Democratic political consultant and commentator, argued that we have the holiday of Juneteenth to celebrate the freedom of black Americans, but asserted that President Donald Trump “doesn’t want to honor” the occasion.
Hunt fired back, “I don’t want it. I don’t want Black History Month. I don’t want all these days to make everybody feel special. I’m an ’80s baby. Everybody’s too sensitive anyway. We’re all Americans anyway.”
Hunt continued to bash "The View" host even after his Friday appearance on "Real Time with Bill Maher."
Hunt wrote on the X social media platform on Monday, "Hey Whoopi, if America is so bad, why are you still cashing multi-million dollar checks from a country that made you rich, famous, and free? You claim it’s worse to be Black in America than a woman in Iran? Really?"
"Try hosting The View in Tehran and see how that goes. Spoiler alert: there won’t be a studio audience — there’ll be a firing squad," the Texas congressman stated.
"The truth is, you’ve become a professional victim in a nation that gave you everything. The View isn’t a talk show, it’s a weekly tantrum from the far-left padded room," Hunt declared. "Let her talk. Let her rant. Every time she opens her mouth, she reminds America why we’re winning."
Hunt stated that he doesn't want "The View" canceled. In fact, Hunt wants to bring more exposure to the left-wing talk show.
"Honestly? Don’t cancel The View. Add more cameras. More microphones. Maybe even a laugh track," Hunt said. "Once you realize it’s basically an SNL skit of a leftwing meltdown, it becomes the greatest MAGA campaign ad on TV."
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