CNN's Levs explains: “a simple majority of 51 votes” is “actually not” the “nuclear option”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

From the August 19 edition of CNN's Newsroom:

LEVS: So, the theory here is, if they cannot get those 60 votes they would usually need to break a filibuster, there's this whole other way to circumvent it and say, you know what? Let's not even worry about it. Let's use that reconciliation, get a simple majority of 51 votes, potentially pass the bill.

GRIFFIN: Josh, is that the nuclear option --

LEVS: It's actually --

GRIFFIN: -- we've heard about that in the past?

LEVS: It's actually not. Right, we've heard the “nuclear option” term used, and that was used in the context of trying to get through some judicial nominees against a filibuster. In a way, it's a similar concept, but we're not talking about that term here. That's not the term that we're -- that's being used. Instead, it's about this specific thing, a reconciliation, that got inside that 2010 budget. [CNN's Newsroom 8/19/09]

Previously:

CNN joins Fox News in falsely comparing reconciliation process to “nuclear option”