Tipsheet

'Chilling': Biden Changes His Tune on Filibuster to Pass Dem Election Bills

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  December 24, 2021 3:00 PM

President Biden has changed his tune on the filibuster, saying Thursday that he supports an exception when it comes to the election reform bill that stalled in the Senate earlier this year after passing the House.

"If the only thing standing between getting voting rights legislation passed and not getting passed is the filibuster, I support making the exception of voting rights for the filibuster," the president told ABC News's David Muir. "Whatever it takes. Change the Senate rules..." 

If that were to happen, the 60-vote threshold for passage would be lowered to 50. If all Republicans opposed the measure and Democrats could get Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, the two moderates, on board, Vice President Kamala Harris would serve as the tie-breaking vote.  

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said they will push forward on the legislation in January.

“The Senate will consider voting rights legislation, as early as the first week back," he wrote in a letter to the caucus, according to The Hill. "If Senate Republicans continue to abuse the filibuster and prevent the body from considering this bill, the Senate will then consider changes to any rules which prevent us from debating and reaching final conclusion on important legislation."

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Manchin and Sinema have remained firm in their support of the filibuster. 

“If you can make the Senate work better, the rules are something we've changed over the years; 232 years, there's been rule changes. But there's never been a change with the filibuster, the rights of the minority,” Manchin told “Fox News Sunday” recently. 

In a June opinion piece for The Washington Post, Sinema argued "there's more to lose than gain by ending the filibuster." 

"I understand bipartisanship seems outdated to many pundits. But the difficult work of collaboration is what we expect in Arizona," she said. "And I still believe it is the best way to identify realistic solutions — instead of escalating all-or-nothing political battles that result in no action, or in whipsawing federal policy reversals."

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked about Biden's comments during a briefing.

"The President has spoken to his view — his strong view — that getting voting rights legislation passed is a fundamental priority for him.  It’s something that is essential so that people across the country are able to exercise their right to vote, to participate in the democratic process.  That’s something he has always believed, always been committed to," she noted. 

"As he said in his answer last night, we may not have to go to that, but he is prepared to support changes if that’s the only thing standing in the way of getting this done."

The Wall Street Journal, among others, took the president to task over the "exception" comment. 

"An 'exception' to the filibuster? This is like an engineer saying he merely wants to remove a section of the Hoover Dam. Watch out for le déluge," the editorial board wrote. "In calling for a filibuster 'exception,' Mr. Biden is again following progressives instead of leading the Democratic Party. And neither he nor anyone else is explaining how this is supposed to work in practice. Perhaps Democrats would try to claim that the filibuster carve-out applies only to bills protecting democracy. Even taking such a limitation at face value, the next Republican Senate would surely argue that ballot integrity measures qualify."