Oct. 7, 2021: Why McConnell backed down

Donald Trump and Sen. Elizabeth Warren actually agree on something: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell backed down Wednesday when he offered Democrats an extension of the debt ceiling until December. (As of early this morning, the two sides hadn’t finalized the deal.) “McConnell caved,” said Warren. “Looks like Mitch McConnell is folding to the Democrats, again,” said Trump. Was it the filibuster? McConnell backed down after Democratic threats of nuking the filibuster for the debt ceiling started to become more real. At their Tuesday lunch, Democratic senators discussed how McConnell’s blockade on the debt ceiling was boosting the case of filibuster reformers. Later that day, Biden, generally a skeptic of filibuster reform, said such a change for the debt ceiling was now a “real possibility.” Take the POLITICO Podcast Listener Survey Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio. Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.