proposing for guns, for gun reform, background checks for everybody, 91% support. and that is that number that is consistent across polls. the big new york times national poll on this last month had it at 92%, not 91%. so you can split those hairs if you want. but basically, it s kind of unanimous. the washington post did roughly the same polling. again, a national poll on these policies. but when the washington post did it, they broke it down by party, which ends up being really useful. look at the support for the stuff from republicans specifically. the only one that flips, that drops below majority support, the only one where republicans do not give it majority support even though the country as a whole does, is specifically the idea of banning assault rifles again. but still, that one s close. even among republicans, 45% of republicans think we ought to be banning assault weapons again. that s the only one that flips. all the rest of them still majority support even from repu
i think that the rules have been abused and that we re going to work to change them. first press conference, day after the election, harry reid saying that going forward things are going to change. specifically, this was going to change. the de facto rule that republicans have gerrymandered in the senate for lack of a better term that pretty much everything requires 60 votes to pass now. that has never been how things have worked in this country. i mean, constitutionally it takes a supermajority to impeach a president or ratify a treaty or amend the constitution but not to pass an ordinary bill. ordinary bill passage should just take a majority. but republicans have made it take a supermajority. and harry reid the day after the election said he was going to change that. and that wasn t a new promise from him. he didn t pull that out of thin air. he s been telegraphing for months that should democrats retain control of the senate they were going to fix the rules. they were going to do
what a shame. that was harry reid on the senate floor in may saying progressive senators tom you d jaul and jeff merkley who were working to reform the filibuster they were right, he should have listened to their call to reform the senate rules, they wright and he was wrong not to listen to them. they were right and this was today. progressive senators working dramatically to alter senate rules were defeated thursday when senate majority leader harry reid and his counterpart republican leader mitch mcconnell set to announce a series of reforms on the senate floor that fall far short of their demands. one more? one more. we re going to change the rules. we cannot continue in this way. so i hope we can get something that that the republicans will work with us on but it won t be a handshake. we tried that last time. it didn t work. twharzry reid at the senate in december saying any deal to reform the filibuster would not be a handshake deal. today a handshake agreement is how rol
routine rachel, this has to change. it s wrong what they re doing because it s never happened before. the republicans just this time have abused the system, and it s going to have to change. we re going to have to look at ways to change that because there should not be 60 votes in the senate. that was democratic senate majority leader harry reid during an interview with me in his home state of nevada in october 2010. this has to change, there should not be a 60-vote threshold in the senate. and then this was the headline tads in the washington post. harry reid i m not personally at this stage ready to get rid of the 60-vote threshold. yeah. also this. if there were ever a time when tom udall and jeff merkley were prophetic, it s tonight. these two young fine senators said it was time we change the rules in the senate and we didn t. they were right. the rest of us were wrong. or most of us anyway.
that they participated in in this last election. we need a grassroots effort to try to support republicans who want to do the right thing. we need to convince them that there s a price to pay if they do the right thing. and we ve got to take on the nra to try to debunk this myth that if you cross them there s a political price to pay. in fact, the opposite was true in the last election. the nra barely could win elections around this country. they just aren t the force that they once were. senator chris murphy, senator richard blumenthal, the senate delegation from the state of connecticut. the whole country is looking to connecticut for leadership, and i think also for moral resonance on this issue. and everybody s counting on you. seeing you guys here together tonight is a real treat for us to have you both here. thank you. thank you. thanks. i appreciate it. all right. after years of gridlock congress finally had a chance to fix an enormous problem today. had a chance. fix th