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\u2019t finalized the deal.)\n\u201cMcConnell caved,\u201d said Warren.\n\u201cLooks like Mitch McConnell is folding to the Democrats, again,\u201d said Trump.\nWas 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\u2019s 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 \u201creal possibility.\u201d\nTake the POLITICO Podcast Listener Survey\nRaghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio.\xa0Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.