President Donald Trump lashed out at the Senate on Friday evening, saying the body is “killing our country” and needs to “act” when it returns for the lame-duck session next week.
“The Senate has to act. The Senate is getting nothing passed, and it’s just killing our country,” Trump told reporters Friday in Florida following remarks at the Kennedy Space Center.
Trump was asked about his priorities during the final two months of Republican control, prompting his harsh criticism of the GOP-led Senate.
Republicans are set to lose their majority in the Senate in January when the new Congress is sworn in, giving Trump two more months with a Republican trifecta until his ability to enact his legislation is seriously impeded by a hostile Democratic House and Senate.
“That means Democrats and Republicans are just not getting anything done. So the Democrats vote in a block. We could have the best bill in the world for our country. They vote in a block, and we always have a few Republicans that obstruct,” Trump said of Republican disunity on bypassing the filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act, the president’s signature voting identification and election integrity bill.
The Senate, Trump said, is “the biggest problem we have, it’s a roadblock. You send things to the Senate when you want it to die,” Trump continued. “The Senate is killing our country.”
He declined to swipe at Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), calling him a “good man,” but said “he’s got to get things done.”
He went on to blame the Senate in part for the catastrophic results on Tuesday.
TRUMP SAYS HE EXPECTS TO FIRE CABINET MEMBERS AFTER MIDTERM DEFEAT
“Nothing is getting through the Senate. And you know what? Our voters saw that, and that’s one of the problems we had. In my opinion, the biggest,” Trump said.
He urged the upper chamber to confirm his judges pending approval, a task that will prove more difficult, if not impossible, when Democrats take control in January.