00:00It seems like a risky political move, Trump's stalling on signing this bipartisan housing bill,
00:06housing being something that's really important to voters heading into the midterms,
00:09while pushing this potentially less popular voting restriction bill.
00:14Megan, walk me through that calculus.
00:16As is always the case with Trump, a lot of this is in the show, right? He was able to
00:21produce this
00:21very dramatic moment on the Hill, and he was able to really try to hold his Republican senator's feet
00:30to the fire on this. The only way that this could pass the Senate, and it's not even clear this
00:36could
00:36pass the Senate if this were to happen, but would be to do away with the filibuster, that sort of
00:44ancient Senate rule that requires 60 votes for most pieces of legislation. He has been pushing
00:51Senate Republicans to do away with this, this entire term, and Senate Republican leaders have
00:59resisted. This, the filibuster is essentially what gives the minority in the Senate power over the
01:07majority, and Senate Republicans know that they will not always be in the majority, and that by doing
01:14away with this essential roadblock would take away their power should they lose or when they lose the
01:21majority. We saw this same dynamic internally, you know, within when Democrats were in control of the
01:29Senate, and there was a push from progressives to do away with the filibuster to preserve abortion
01:35rights. Leaders at the time pushed back against it for the same reasons, sort of preserving this
01:41institutional roadblock, that, you know, that protects the minority, but also protects the country from
01:48sort of vast and fluctuations in laws and policy every time Washington changes hands. So this is, this is
01:57essentially a power play on his part.
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