Speaking Thursday on Newsmax\u2019s \u201cCarl Higbie FRONTLINE,\u201d Vance said the administration has examined whether he could personally take control of the Senate chair and overrule the parliamentarian.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we\u2019ve actually looked into this. As the president of the Senate under the U.S. Constitution, there are things that we can do,\u201d Vance said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can take over the Senate chair. I can occupy the chair. We can overrule the parliamentarian. Those things are very possible,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
The problem, according to Vance, would then become securing enough Republican votes to sustain his ruling.<\/p>\n
Vance said the obstacle would not necessarily be the 60 votes ordinarily needed to overcome a Democratic filibuster, but whether Republicans could muster sufficient support for the procedural maneuver.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf, for example, I took over the Senate chair, and I overruled the parliamentarian, we would need to sustain 50 senators plus me,\u201d Vance explained.<\/p>\n
He said Trump, administration officials and Republican lawmakers have been discussing whether enough senators could ultimately be persuaded to support such a move.<\/p>\n
Vance blamed what he described as \u201ca few holdouts\u201d who remain committed to traditional Senate procedures.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem is not the majority of GOP senators,\u201d Vance said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s that you\u2019ve got a few holdouts who just don\u2019t want to do that because they\u2019re so committed to these archaic rules.\u201d<\/p>\n
The House has already passed the SAVE America Act, which would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and photo identification to cast a ballot.<\/p>\n
The legislation would also impose new requirements on absentee voting and require states to regularly maintain voter rolls to identify and remove noncitizens.<\/p>\n
An effort to advance the legislation through budget reconciliation encountered a major roadblock in June when Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough determined that it did not comply with the Byrd Rule.<\/p>\n
The rule governs what provisions can be included in reconciliation legislation, which can advance through the Senate with a simple majority rather than the 60 votes generally required to overcome a filibuster.<\/p>\n
Trump has subsequently called for eliminating the filibuster and criticized Senate Majority Leader John Thune over the impasse.<\/p>\n
Vance argued that Republicans who insist on preserving traditional Senate procedures are making a strategic mistake because he believes Democrats will eliminate those same protections whenever they next regain control of the chamber.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou still have some senators who are so committed to these ridiculous parliamentary rules, even though they know the Democrats aren\u2019t,\u201d Vance said.<\/p>\n
He described those Republicans as effectively \u201cunilaterally disarming\u201d while assuming Democrats would reciprocate by preserving the filibuster when they regain power.<\/p>\n
Vance pointed to former Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who resisted Democratic efforts to change filibuster rules during the Biden administration.<\/p>\n
He argued their experiences demonstrated the political pressure senators can face when opposing their party\u2019s leadership on major procedural questions.<\/p>\n
He also argued that Democrats would eventually eliminate the filibuster to pursue priorities including statehood for Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., changes to the Supreme Court and their own election legislation.<\/p>\n
For now, however, Vance acknowledged Republicans do not appear to have secured the votes necessary to execute the maneuver the administration has explored.<\/p>\n
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