WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - President Donald Trump has expressed confidence in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ken., but suggested he would still like to see the Republican leader scrap the Senate's filibuster rules.
'I do,' Trump said when asked if he has confidence in McConnell in an interview with Fox News' 'Fox & Friends' that was broadcast Thursday. 'I mean, look, I've dealt with Mitch for a long time.'
The comments from Trump come even though he has previously been critical of McConnell for the Senate's failure to pass a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.
However, Trump reiterated his call for McConnell to get rid of the filibuster, which he called a disaster for the Republican Party.
'Because it means you need 60 votes on most pieces of legislation and you're not going to get it.' Trump said. 'They want to keep this horrible filibuster rule, which says basically, you need 60.'
'So that means you need eight Democrats to get something approved. And you're not going to get that,' he added. 'So they have to get rid of the filibuster rule.'
McConnell and other Republican leaders have previously expressed a reluctance to scrap the filibuster, noting that the GOP will not always be in the majority.
The president's repeated demands come even though Senate Republicans did not have the votes to pass a number of different bills to repeal and replace Obamacare with a simple majority.
In the interview with 'Fox & Friends,' Trump also reiterated his criticism of the NFL and its players who kneel during the national anthem.
Trump suggested NFL owners are afraid of their players and urged the league to adopt a rule that would ban the protests.
'They have rules for everything -- you can't dance in the end zone, you can't wear pink socks relative to breast cancer -- they have rules for everything,' Trump said. 'Why aren't they honoring this country by enforcing a rule that's been in existence for a long time?'
(Photo: Gage Skidmore)
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