Democratic Sen. Tester Suggests He’s Open to Changing on the Filibuster If Gridlock Continues: It’s Been ‘Weaponized’

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) made a rare appearance on cable news Wednesday and indicated that he may be losing patience with Republicans in the Senate.

Tester jabbed his Republican colleagues for opposing the creation of an independent commission to investigate the January 6 Capitol insurrection.

“We had a bunch of domestic terrorists overrun the Capitol and broke out windows and caused damage,” said Tester. “So we ought to figure out how to get to the bottom of that. That is not a partisan issue.”

He added, “The same thing on voting rights.”

“There are things we need to do. The infrastructure bill is another one of course. But the bottom line is it didn’t used to be this way. Folks have weaponized the filibuster, and I’m still for getting both sides together and try to make the filibuster work, but at some point in time this country needs Congress to act and get things done.”

Host Chris Hayes followed up with Tester on the filibuster, which establishes a 60-vote procedural hurdle to pass most legislation. The senator has previously said supports preserving the filibuster, but he said more gridlock in the Senate might change that.

Well, look Chris, I didn’t come to Washington, D.C. to get nothing done. I came to try to work for the betterment of this country and the state of Montana. And if the filibuster continues to be weaponized and ends up in gridlock, then it doesn’t leave a lot of choices. There’s a bipartisan group that’s meeting and will continue to meet to try to get things done, whether it’s on infrastructure or something else. I think maybe if we get some success, it might break the door down and we can get some more bipartisan stuff done. But I will tell you that if we can’t do that, then it’s going to force me into a situation that I don’t want to be in undoing the filibuster. I don’t think we’re there yet, but we’re certainly not moving the right direction.

Tester’s hedging is notable, though moot for now so long as other members of the Democratic caucus remain opposed to reforming the filibuster, with Sens. Joe Manchin (WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) being its most vocal Democratic supporters.

Watch above via MSNBC.