Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) was taken aback Thursday after being confronted about his flip-flopping on the Senate filibuster.
Scott defended the filibuster when Republicans were in the minority of the Senate, but now that his party has the majority, he’s echoing President Donald Trump’s calls to abolish it.
“The filibuster was used to say, we’re going to have a conversation, and then at some point, once we’re done, we vote. I’m fine with that. But we don’t make people talk. So if we’re not going to make people talk, let’s get rid of it,” Scott told CNN host Kaitlan Collins.
A number of Republicans have called for eliminating the filibuster, a longstanding procedure in the Senate to delay or block a vote on a bill, so that they can more easily pass GOP legislation, notably Trump’s SAVE America Act.
Trump has pushed Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to end the Senate procedure.
“Let Leader Thune clearly identify those few ‘Republicans’ that are Voting against AMERICA. They will never be elected again! In other words, lump everything together as one, and VOTE!!! Kill the Filibuster, and stay in D.C. for Easter, if necessary,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social in late March.
Thune said at the time there was not enough support among Senate Republicans to pass the bill without Democratic votes.
Scott said back in 2022, when his party was in the Senate minority, that “to change the filibuster will not protect democracy, but ruin it.” Now he has seemingly changed his mind, telling Collins on Thursday he thinks “we ought to get rid of” it after claiming Democrats block all the votes.
Collins confronted him about this change of opinion, asking, “Why do you have a different position now that Republicans are in the majority?”
Scott defended himself, and when further pressed about the lack of support by his Republican colleagues, Scott defended them, stating that “every senator has got the right to make a choice what they want, and I’m not going to question how any Republican [or] Democrat wants to vote.”
“Vote any way you want. I read the Constitution. I represent Florida,” the senator concluded.