Mitch McConnell promised a 'nuclear winter' of contrarian tactics if Democrats get rid of the filibuster

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

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• McConnell said Senate negotiations would be a "nuclear winter" if Democrats bin the filibuster.
• Senate aides told Axios he isn't bluffing, and would use other rules to frustrate Democrats.
• Democrats dismiss his rhetoric, though they likely don't have enough support to scrap the entire policy.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Mitch McConnell has warned that the Senate would turn into "a sort of nuclear winter" if Democrats scrapped the filibuster.

The Senate minority leader made the comments on the conservative "Ruthless" podcast in an episode released Tuesday.

Senate aides told Axios that McConnell isn't bluffing, and that he would be very strategic in taking advantage of other Senate rules to frustrate Democrats and stall progress in the Senate.

But, Axios reported, his goal now is to use apocalyptic language in a bid to scare Democrats away from wanting to scrap the filibuster.

The filibuster is a prolonged debate used to prevent measures from being brought to a vote and to block legislation, and is commonly used by the minority party - in this case the GOP. A filibuster can be ended if the 60 out of the 100 senators agree to end the debate. The 60-vote measure to end a filibuster could make passing legislation harder, given that only a simple majority is needed to pass bills in the Senate.

As Insider's Erin Snodgrass previously reported, calls to get rid of the filibuster have increased since Democrats took control of Congress in January. The move could allow policies like increasing the minimum wage and tightening gun control to move forward more quickly.

Democrats previously dismissed McConnell's rhetoric about the filibuster, including when he promised earlier this month to go "scorched earth" if Democrats got rid of it.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" last week that McConnell "can do all the threatening and bluster he wants, it's not going to stop us."

Axios noted that Republicans could use other strategies to try and slow down progress if the filibuster is gone, including requiring roll calls that would mean Senators have to spend more time at the Capitol, putting Republicans forward for hourslong debates, and introducing long amendments to stretch out proceedings.

Former President Donald Trump said this week that getting rid of the filibuster would be "catastrophic for the Republican Party."

Democrats also told Axios that Republican efforts to obstruct progress would only delay it, but not stop it.

They said that they'd still make more progress on their agenda without the filibuster, even with Republicans trying to frustrate proceedings.

One senior Democratic aide told Axios: "In the end, this would be obstruction for the sake of obstruction."

But the Associated Press noted that Democrats don't appear to have enough support within their own senators to change the filibuster rule.

It requires 51 votes, which is the number of Democrats in the Senate, including Vice President Kamala Harris - and some Democratic senators, including Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, have already voiced objections to the change.

But Democrats may have enough votes to reform the filibuster.

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