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‘I might have forced Israel’s hand’: Trump denies being pressured by Netanyahu into war

President Donald Trump vehemently denied that he was pushed into joining the military operation against Iran by Israel.

The joint Israeli-U.S. strikes on Iran have entered a fourth day and are likely to continue for some time as Iran retaliates with missile strikes against its neighbors in the Middle East.

‘Israel was ready, and we were ready. And we’ve had a very, very powerful impact because virtually everything they have has been knocked out now.’

Opponents of the strikes have lobbed the accusation that the Israelis pushed Trump into joining their military action. At the White House on Tuesday, he rebuffed the suggestion that Israel, and specifically Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was to blame.

“Did Israel force your hand to launch these strikes against Iran? Did Netanyahu pull the United States into this war?” a reporter asked.

“No. I might have forced their hand,” Trump said.

“You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics. And it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. They were going to attack if we didn’t do it. They were going to attack first — I felt strongly about that. And we have great negotiators, great people, people that do this very successfully and have done it all their lives, very successful,” he explained.

“Based on the way the negotiation was going, I think they were going to attack first. And I didn’t want that to happen,” he added. “So, if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand. But Israel was ready, and we were ready. And we’ve had a very, very powerful impact because virtually everything they have has been knocked out now.”

The president also offered what he thought might be the “worst-case scenario” in Iran.

“I guess the worst case would be, we do this, and then somebody takes over who is as bad as the previous person, right,” the president said. “That could happen. We don’t want that to happen. That would probably be the worst: You go through this, and then in five years you realize you put somebody in who was no better.”

RELATED: ‘American-made retribution’: US ‘suicide drones’ deployed against Iran are based on tech from Iranian drones used in Ukraine

The president was hosting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said his country supports the effort to remove the regime in Iran.

“As I said in Germany the last two days, we are supporting the United States and Israel to get rid of this terrible terrorist regime, and we are looking forward to [the] day after,” Merz said. “And we have to talk about the strategy, what is following after this regime is away.”

The strikes on Iran have led directly to the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was also reportedly killed, though an aide told Turkish news outlet Anadolu Agency about Ahmadinejad on Sunday: “I am in touch with him. All is good.”

The remaining regime has responded by striking at nearby Middle East states hosting U.S. military bases and assets.

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​Did netanyahu push trump into war, Us-israeli strike on iran, Trump and netanyahu, Iran retaliation, Politics 

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Government-paid traffickers? Noem testifies Biden administration funded abuse of migrant kids

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testified on Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Biden administration paid child traffickers to sponsor unaccompanied minors.

Moments after Noem was sworn in to testify, a masked protester against immigration enforcement interrupted the hearing by shouting for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The hearing was interrupted a second time by another protester, who yelled out claims that ICE had killed Americans, shouting, “Black lives matter!”

‘We’re not going to stop until we find every single one.’

During Noem’s opening statement, she accused Democrats of holding the DHS hostage by leading a government shutdown of the agency, which she called “reckless” and “unnecessary.”

“As a result, critical national security missions, including border security, immigration enforcement, aviation security, disaster response, cybersecurity, and the protection of critical infrastructure, are all being strained. Our ability to provide for a safe and successful World Cup is being hindered as well,” Noem explained.

She noted that over 100,000 DHS employees are “again being asked to work without pay for the third time in just five months.”

RELATED: Tom Homan says Trump administration has located 23,000 of the 300,000 migrant children lost under Biden administration

Photo by HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images

Noem explained that during the Biden administration’s open-border crisis, unaccompanied minors were “lost” and “not tracked.”

She said that it has been “challenging” because the Department of Health and Human Services, under the Biden administration’s leadership, paid sponsors to host the unaccompanied minors.

“And those sponsors, many times, we found instances where they trafficked these children themselves,” Noem continued. “So under that administration, we not only had children that were in this country as a part of a program, the government was paying individuals that were knowingly trafficking them and abusing them.”

She declared that under the Trump administration, these practices have ended, and federal law enforcement agents have found many of these children and attempted to reunite them with their families.

Noem reported that the current administration has located 145,000 of the 450,000 children whom the previous White House was not tracking.

“We’re not going to stop until we find every single one,” Noem declared.

RELATED: ICE exposes Biden’s biggest border failure: Kids handed to sex abusers and criminals

Photo by HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) addressed the rise in child abuse material online, noting that in 2023, there were an estimated 104 million images and videos of suspected child sexual abuse reported in the United States.

“With all of these images of kids online, I was shocked to learn recently that hundreds of thousands of children in these images are unidentified,” Hawley told Noem. “The Interpol database alone, 90,000 kids are completely unidentified. In the U.K.’s database, it’s over 200,000.”

“Would it be helpful to you if Congress said, ‘You know what, we’re going to create more analysts, more child abuse expert positions, more forensic analysts, and more prosecutors to give to you to look at these images, figure out who these kids are, and go after their abusers?’” Hawley asked.

“Yes, it’d be incredibly helpful,” Noem responded, adding that providing more resources to Homeland Security Investigations would allow the agency to “free more kids from that life of victimhood.”

Hawley pledged to introduce legislation to provide the DHS with additional funding to rescue children from trafficking.

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‘Not just about Iran’ — former Navy SEAL reveals Trump’s REAL endgame in the Middle East

For nearly half a century, every U.S. president has drawn a firm red line against Iran — only to watch the regime cross it time and again.

Now, following President Donald Trump’s decisive military strike last weekend that targeted hundreds of sites and eliminated key figures in Iran’s top leadership, Glenn Beck sits down with former Navy SEAL and bestselling author Jack Carr to unpack what this pivotal moment truly means for the region and beyond.

When he first heard the news that the U.S. and Israel had launched a joint military attack on Iran, Carr’s initial reaction was one of “sadness.”

“It made me sad because diplomacy had failed,” he says, arguing that Trump’s maximum-pressure campaign against Iran was doomed to fail because acquiescence to any of the three non-negotiables — no nuclear weapons, no ballistic missiles, and no supporting terrorist proxies — would make the Iranian regime look “weak,” something it cannot suffer if it wants to stay in power.

“Any covert action we’d attempted over the last year or in previous administrations over the past decades, that has failed also, and now we’re in a full-scale military engagement with Iran,” he laments.

Glenn agrees wholeheartedly: “Jimmy Carter said, ‘This can’t stand.’ … Ronald Reagan said, ‘They got to stop.’ … H.W. Bush, ‘It’s got to stop. They got to get to the negotiating table.’ Clinton said that, W. Bush said that, Obama said that, Trump said that in the first term, Biden said that.”

“I mean, at some point you’re like, this is insane. We’ve tried giving them billions of dollars; we’ve tried holding money back; we’ve tried carrots and sticks, and nothing works,” he continues, calling Trump “the first one to say, ‘I’m not kicking the can down to the next president. It’s over.’”

“Some of [those former presidents] actually helped Iran get either more powerful or gave them more options when it came to building up these different weapons programs, to crushing any popular uprising or protests. So I’m not surprised that we got to this point,” Carr says.

“When people declare war on you and tell you that they want to destroy you, you probably don’t want that person to have a nuclear weapon or to have options that can lead to your demise,” he adds.

But Glenn thinks this military operation against Iran is “much bigger” than preventing the terrorist regime from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

“This is about Trump redesigning the entire world and going after CRINK,” he says, arguing that Trump is aiming to “take the I” out of CRINK, “which hurts oil for China, hurts money through the oil for Russia,” and weakens Iran’s supply of drones to Russia.

“To look at this just as Iran, I think you’ll never understand why we did this. Do you believe that’s true, or am I wrong?” he asks.

“You’re absolutely right,” Carr says.

He explains that Trump’s military strike on Iran disrupts China’s crucial economic and technological lifeline to the regime. China buys huge amounts of discounted Iranian oil to evade U.S. sanctions and has committed $400 billion over 25 years to Iran — including selling advanced surveillance technology that helps the Iranian government monitor and suppress its own people.

By weakening or breaking this support, the U.S. not only destabilizes Iran’s regime but also frees up American attention and resources to address bigger long-term threats — confronting China over Taiwan (the island China claims as its own) and the tiny but vital computer chips known as semiconductors (the essential “brains” powering phones, computers, cars, AI systems, and military equipment), most of which are produced in Taiwan — while also handling threats from Russia.

“So you’re exactly right. This is not just about Iran,” he says.

To hear more of the conversation, watch the video above.

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‘Despicable’ homicide suspect caught on body cam pointing gun at Florida deputy — and pulling trigger, cops say

A “despicable” homicide suspect was caught on bodycam video pointing a gun at a Florida deputy and pulling the trigger, the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office said Monday.

Authorities said the Feb. 20 incident took place in Port Charlotte, which is about an hour southeast of Sarasota.

‘Let me be clear: This individual is lucky to be alive today.’

Deputies got word that two suspects from a Sarasota County burglary were driving through their jurisdiction in a rental car, officials said.

After observing a traffic violation, deputies stopped the car and made contact with the occupants, officials said.

The driver was identified as 41-year-old Amy Lee; the passenger refused to provide his identification, officials said.

At first, neither Lee nor the passenger complied with deputy commands to exit the vehicle, but officials said they soon obeyed when they were told they would be arrested for obstruction.

Officials learned that Lee was arrested last year on multiple felony charges and that her co-defendant in those cases was 55-year-old Brian Hewson. He turned out to be the passenger in the rental vehicle, and he also had multiple warrants for his arrest, officials said.

Hewson “immediately resisted” when deputies tried placing him under arrest, and a deputy drew his agency-issued taser while shouting a warning, officials said.

But Hewson pulled a concealed firearm, pointed it directly at the deputy, and pulled the trigger, officials said.

However, there was no round in the chamber of the loaded gun, officials said, and it didn’t fire.

With that, the deputy discharged additional taser probes — yet Hewson still tried to re-rack the gun, officials said.

“Thankfully, due to the neuromuscular incapacitation, Hewson was unable to maintain control of the gun, and it was secured by deputies,” officials said.

RELATED: Florida felon named Blackie accused of pointing gun at vehicle in fit of road rage

Officials said Hewson was arrested for multiple warrants — including one for homicide in Pennsylvania, one for failure to appear in Pennsylvania, and charges in Lee County related to trafficking stolen property.

He also was charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer for intentionally pointing a firearm at a CCSO deputy, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a controlled substance (1.1 grams of fentanyl found in the vehicle), resisting with violence, and possession of drug paraphernalia, officials said.

He was being held at the Charlotte County Jail without bond, officials said.

RELATED: Knifed for ‘being a Christian’? Suspect allegedly stabs man and his dog after asking about victim’s religion

Brian Hewson. Image source: Charlotte County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office

“Let me be clear: This individual is lucky to be alive today,” Sheriff Bill Prummell said, adding that “I want to be sure it is understood that my deputies are trained to eliminate a lethal threat with deadly force. They deserve to go home to their families after their shift. This despicable human tried to take one of my deputies out instead of being a man and accepting accountability for his own decisions. Now he will face the justice he has tried to dodge for so long … and I hope he spends the rest of his days behind bars.”

The sheriff’s office added in its Facebook post about the incident that “as a point of clarification: We see a few people questioning why our deputy went taser instead of lethal. The answer to that is that he already had the taser in hand before the firearm was seen. Had our deputy attempted to switch from taser to firearm, he likely would have already been shot. The reaction, in the moment, is to use the taser that was already drawn and aimed to incapacitate the suspect. As you can see in the video, this happened VERY quickly.”

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‘Take cover’: Ambassador Mike Huckabee gives disheartening message to Americans stuck in Israel

As Operation Epic Fury enters its fourth day of attacks against Iran, Mike Huckabee, the United States ambassador to Israel, gave a message to Americans stranded in Israel, which is now enduring airstrikes from Iran.

On Tuesday morning, Huckabee released a video that was just under four minutes long with instructions for Americans on what to do amid the ongoing attacks.

‘The US embassy is not in a position at this time to evacuate or directly assist Americans in departing Israel.’

Huckabee gave an outline of the “fairly limited” options for Americans seeking to leave Israel.

“What we are recommending to all of our American citizens, including our own embassy staff, is follow the directions of Home Front Command, which are right now to shelter in place and to be close to a shelter at all times,” Huckabee said. “Follow the alerts. If you hear the siren, make sure you take cover. That’s the best thing you can do.”

RELATED: US service member death toll continues to rise amid Operation Epic Fury

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

The Home Front Command is an arm of the Israel Defense Forces responsible for search-and-rescue missions in Israel and around the world, according to the HCF website.

Huckabee stressed that all Americans in Israel and the surrounding area should sign up for the State Department’s STEP program, which communicates necessary updates to U.S. citizens.

The ambassador to Israel added one other option, though there are obvious risks and uncertainties involved with it as well: “In addition, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism is providing bus service from several locations — Herzliya, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem — to go to Taba, just across the border in Egypt, and from there, flights could be available from the Taba airport, though there are limited flights. But also ground transportation would be able to be obtained in Taba to go on to Cairo, where the airport is operating normally and efficiently.”

Ground transportation from Tel Aviv to Taba takes an estimated four hours of travel. It takes between six and 10 hours by bus from Taba to Cairo.

The U.S. embassy for Jerusalem echoed Huckabee’s instructions about finding an escape route while saying what Americans in the Middle East never wish to hear during an armed conflict in the region: “The U.S. embassy is not in a position at this time to evacuate or directly assist Americans in departing Israel.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio released a similar message on Monday night encouraging Americans to sign up for the STEP program for up-to-date situation notifications. Rubio also announced that the State Department, immediately after Operation Epic Fury commenced, “activated a 24/7 task force, surging personnel and resources necessary to help provide American citizens with up-to-the-minute safety and security information.”

The State Department issued a “worldwide caution” warning on February 28.

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Israeli strike rocks meeting to choose Iran’s next supreme leader, official claims

The Israeli military has carried out a strike on Iran’s Supreme Council during a meeting to select a new supreme leader, an Israeli official claims.

A senior Israeli official told Fox News that the attack happened on Tuesday “while they were counting the votes for the appointment of the supreme leader.” The strike reportedly took place in Tehran, where the regime’s remaining senior officials were gathered to determine who would replace the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who died in a strike over the weekend.

Israeli analysts estimate more than 1,000 enemy combatants have been killed inside Iran since the campaign began.

The bombing is one of the most direct blows yet against Iran’s political command structure as part of the joint U.S. and Israeli campaign now entering its fourth day. Since the launch of the coordinated operations targeting Iranian leadership and infrastructure, more than 40 of Iran’s top leaders, including Khamenei, have reportedly been killed, fracturing the regime’s chain of command.

Israeli analysts estimate more than 1,000 enemy combatants have been killed inside Iran since the campaign began.

RELATED: Iranian state TV hijacked with Trump, Netanyahu message urging citizens to ‘seize control’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has framed the broader operation as necessary to dismantle Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear capabilities, arguing the regime’s long-term objective threatens not only Israel but the West.

Vice President JD Vance says that the administration’s objective remains limited: Prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ensure it cannot rebuild that capability.

“There’s just no way that Donald Trump is going to allow this country to get into a multi-year conflict, with no clear end in sight and no clear objective,” Vance said, according to Fox News. “He’s defined that objective as Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and has to commit long-term to never trying to rebuild the nuclear capability.”

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​Politics, Israel, Bombs, Missiles, Iran 

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Here’s what the war in Iran means for you at the gas pump

Oil and gas prices spiked globally amid the escalating conflict in the Middle East. Americans aren’t immune, having to shell out significantly more at the pump.

Since Saturday morning, the U.S. and Israel have executed multiple waves of military strikes against Iran. The Shiite nation has, in turn, launched a series of attacks on American installations, personnel, and allies in the region.

‘We’ll likely see both of those rolling over $3/$4 respectively quite soon.’

Violence has spread to Bahrain, Cyprus, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Fighting is also heating up in southern Lebanon, where Israel has endeavored to seize more “strategic positions.”

Related attacks and threats of attacks have slowed and in some cases halted regional energy production and transportation, choking global supply.

Aramco ceased operations at Saudi Arabia’s biggest oil refinery on Monday following a nearby drone attack. Sources told Reuters that, as of Tuesday, the Saudi oil giant was working on rerouting some of its crude exports to the Red Sea to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, where several ships have been attacked in recent days.

Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil normally transits the Strait of Hormuz, a stretch of water between Oman and Iran that links the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman. Shipping through the strait has, however, virtually stopped amid Iranian threats and attacks on vessels attempting to pass.

Ebrahim Jabari, a senior official with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, reportedly stated on Monday that “the strait (of Hormuz) is closed. If anyone tries to pass, the heroes of the Revolutionary Guards and the regular navy will set those ships ablaze.”

RELATED: Netanyahu denies forcing US into war after mixed messages from Rubio, Johnson

Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Citing a shortage of tankers, overloaded export terminals, and navigation disruptions resultant of the “closure of the Strait of Hormuz,” Iraqi authorities have announced major production reductions, reported OilPrice.com.

Following military attacks on two of its facilities, the world’s largest liquid natural gas producer, Qatar’s state-run QatarEnergy, also announced on Monday that it was halting LNG production, then revealed on Tuesday it was arresting the production of downstream products including urea, polymers, methanol, and aluminum.

In the wake of QatarEnergy’s initial announcement on Monday, benchmark British and Dutch wholesale gas prices reportedly spiked by nearly 50%, while benchmark Asian LNG prices shot up 39%.

As of Tuesday, Brent crude oil prices were reportedly climbing toward $84 a barrel — the highest level since July 2024.

JP Morgan analysts indicated a day earlier that “if vessel passage through the SoH [Strait of Hormuz] is restricted for 3 to 4 weeks,” Brent oil prices could exceed $100 per barrel, reported Yahoo! Finance.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at the price-tracking service GasBuddy, noted on Tuesday morning, “The most commonly encountered gas price today in the US is $2.99/gal, while the most common diesel price is $3.99/gal. We’ll likely see both of those rolling over $3/$4 respectively quite soon.”

“Based on the numbers at this moment (3/3/26, 945am ET), the average price of gasoline would likely climb to about $3.30-$3.35/gal in time,” added De Haan. “Any further changes in markets will change this, but if everything held still, that’s where we’d likely be. Diesel closer to $4.25-$4.45.”

The analyst indicated that the 12-cent rise is the “largest since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine boosted prices 15.0c/gal on 3/4/22.”

When asked about spiking oil prices on Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters, “We knew that going in would be a factor. And so we have a program in place that will begin to be implemented by [Energy] Secretary [Chris] Wright, Secretary [Scott] Bessent.”

“We talked about it last night, again, about this program. We talked this morning,” continued Rubio. “And starting tomorrow, you will see us rolling out those phases to try to mitigate against that.”

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Living human brain cells are training a chatbot to be ‘more like us’

A company recently revealed its human-brain-cell-driven chatbot that it has taught to play video games.

However, even though the program runs on real human cells, it is still hallucinating answers.

‘It could be more able to use biological intelligence in a meaningful way.’

The company, Cortical Labs, shared a video recently that showed its brain-cell-operated large language model responding in real time to a user prompt. Return reported on the company last year for using brain cells grown on a silicon “chip” for an organic computer. The tech is referred to as synthetic biological intelligence, and the company now appears to have a room full of such computers.

“This is a whole new paradigm to how … the syntax of the LLM can be more like us,” a company rep said in the video.

Boasting about his brain-powered chatbot, the voiceover added, “It could be more able to use biological intelligence in a meaningful way to select the next token and to create better responses.”

This example immediately failed, though. When the user asked the program, “Tell me where you want to visit on vacation,” the bot cited a place that does not exist.

“The Great Barrinchi Cove in the Maldives,” it stated, before also suggesting “Tuscany, Italy, for its rolling hills, stunning views.”

Despite the complex technology, these types of “hallucinations” are common with AI chatbots and are a somewhat typical occurrence for any frequent chatbot user.

RELATED: Dystopia: World’s first ‘biological computer’ uses human brain cells that are ‘raised in a simulation’

In 2022, Cortical Labs said it had successfully taught 800,000 living brain cells to learn how to play the game Pong. The cells were linked to a computer to gradually learn to sense the position of the game’s ball and control the virtual paddle.

“If we allow these cells to know the outcome of their actions, will they actually be able to change in some sort of goal-directed way?” Chief Scientific Officer Brett Kagan asked at the time.

Since then, and after a bevy of requests, the company has advanced its model to play a more complex game: Doom.

The crude shooter game represents a 21-year jump in technological understanding for the program, given that Doom came out in 1993 and Pong in 1972.

RELATED: Trump fired Anthropic for being ‘leftwing nut jobs,’ but the company’s AI is conquering the internet

The recent demo also showed an incomplete answer provided by the chatbot when asked to explain the meaning of life.

It answered, “The meaning of life is a philosophical question that has been pondered by thinkers and scholars across various cultures and religions for centuries.”

It went on, “It explores the fundamental question of what purpose or ultimate meaning lies in human existence.”

“Different interpretations may vary widely,” it added before ending abruptly.

Cortical Labs has made its research publicly available, letting the viewer decide if the company is indeed creating science “for the greater good,” as it has stated.

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The SAVE Act NEEDS to pass … and it’s THIS simple

The SAVE America Act is a common-sense bill that would ensure American citizens would decide American elections by requiring voter ID and getting rid of mail-in ballots — which BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler could not be more on board with.

“It’s basically just elementary voter ID. This should have been passed weeks ago. Why hasn’t it been?” BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler asks, before introducing the vice president of programs at the Conservative Policy Institute, Rachel Bovard.

“She knows what’s going on and who is to blame and what needs to happen to get the SAVE Act passed,” Wheeler says.

“It has passed out of the House — twice, actually. So what we’re dealing with: You have the SAVE Act, and then you have the SAVE America Act. And that is where we are now focusing, is the SAVE America Act,” Bovard explains.

“We had to do a second vehicle, because the SAVE Act passed out of the House in April. It went over to the Senate, where it was then referred to the Senate Rules Committee. And Mitch McConnell is the chair of the Senate Rules Committee and doesn’t like this bill,” she says.

“I don’t know why. Inexplicably. He’s never spoken on it. He doesn’t like it,” she adds.

That’s when House and Senate conservatives, working together on the issue, tweaked the bill to reintroduce it as the SAVE America Act.

“They sent it over to the Senate, and they did something very strategic this time around. They packaged it in such a way, in what we call a message. So they sent it over to the Senate as a message. Meaning, normally, to get on a bill in the Senate, you have to overcome a filibuster. When you have a message, it’s privileged. You don’t. So you can get onto the bill, bypassing the filibuster altogether,” Bovard tells Wheeler.

“And the second thing that was so brilliant about what they did was when it comes over as a message, it doesn’t get referred to committee. It sits at the desk, where it is just now waiting for Majority Leader John Thune to call it up. Now, will it be subject to a filibuster then? I assume it will,” she says, pointing out that there are two ways to break a filibuster.

“The one everyone’s very familiar with is invoking cloture, which is 60 votes. But the other way is through physical exhaustion, which is the old-fashioned way, which is making senators stand and speak until they physically cannot do so any longer and then putting the question,” she continues.

“So instead of having to break through 60 votes, you break through physical exhaustion, and then in both cases, once you’ve broken the filibuster, the bill passes a simple majority,” she says. “So that is where things stand right now.”

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