John Fetterman

In a Washington Post op-ed published Monday morning, the centrist senator said he and the rest of the Democratic Party, with the exception of former Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, were “horribly wrong” to want to abolish or weaken the filibuster.

“History has vindicated former senators Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona) and Joe Manchin III (West Virginia), two people who were vilified by the Democratic Party for their support of the filibuster and whose courageous efforts damaged their political careers,” he wrote of the Democrats-turned-independents. “The rule is a critical line of defense that prevents President Donald Trump from having a fill-in-the-blank government with new laws, deregulation or procedures of its choosing.”

Reflecting on his past stance, Fetterman said he “thought ending the filibuster was necessary to deliver results for working families” and that “it was unlikely for Republicans in the minority to find common ground on legislation Democrats were proposing.”

Today, the party dynamics are reversed, with Democrats in the minority of both the Senate and House.

“I thought Democrats were not being ruthless the way Republicans were,” he added, “and we needed to be on that level if we were going to relieve the anger that voters were feeling.”

If Democrats had changed the filibuster rules four years ago, Fetterman speculates that many of Trump’s key yet “unpopular” policies would have been passed already because, in that case, Republicans would only need 51 votes instead of 60.

“We’d have the Save America Act by now, which I do not support. We could have extreme policies such as nationwide abortion restrictions, backpedaling on LGBT rights, repeal of birthright citizenship and limited voting rights across the country,” Fetterman said. “With a government trifecta firmly in place, many provisions of Project 2025 would have easily been enacted. Republicans could fundamentally change the entire government and country with a simple majority vote.”

Trump has been aggressive in persuading Senate Republicans to end the filibuster, frequently posting his pleas on Truth Social.

“Whichever Party Terminates the Filibuster FIRST will be the Party that survives and thrives,” he wrote on Monday. “If the Dumocrats win this race, however, America will rapidly become nothing more than a Third World Nation!”

TRUMP TELLS THUNE TO CANCEL AUGUST RECESS UNLESS SAVE AMERICA ACT PASSES

The SAVE America Act, a Trump-backed bill designed to require documentary proof of citizenship and photo identification for voters, has been stalled in the Senate for several months due to the intact filibuster.