Biden Sees Scant Hope for Voting Bills While Vowing to Fight On

[left-of-center2012]

Source: Bloomberg

President Joe Biden cast doubt on whether long-shot voting rights legislation can pass Congress but said he’d continue fighting to win approval as long as he’s in the White House. “I hope we get this done,” Biden told reporters after meeting with Senate Democrats on Thursday behind closed doors. “The honest-to-God answer is: I don’t know if we get this done.” Biden said if the measure fails in the Senate, he’ll try again.

“As long as I have a breath in me, as long as I’m in the White House, as long as I’m engaged at all, I’m going to be fighting” for legislation to counter measures in Republican-led states that limit voting rights, he said.

The stakes for Biden and congressional Democrats are high, with civil rights groups and other progressives increasingly restive over the legislation, which has been blocked by Republicans in the Senate using the chamber’s filibuster rule.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said after Biden left that Democrats would do everything they can to pass the voting rights legislation, but he didn’t set out a plan.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-13/biden-says-he-ll-keep-pushing-voting-rights-even-if-voted-down?srnd=premium

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Biden’s comments came after Democrat Kyrsten Sinema said Thursday she opposes a Biden-backed effort to change Senate rules to win approval of the legislation … Just before Biden arrived at the Capitol to huddle with all 50 Senate Democrats, the Arizona senator said on the Senate floor that the filibuster … protects the country “from wild reversals on federal policy” when control of Congress changes hands.

Maine Senator Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said Sinema’s remarks made the path forward “very difficult.”
“She believes that the risk of changing the filibuster is greater than the risk of what’s going on in the states,” he said. “I hope profoundly that she’s right. I fear that she’s wrong.”

Republicans, who have blocked the voting legislation in the past, praised Sinema for opposing changing the Senate rules.

[UCmeNdc]

1. Sad

[DownriverDem]

2. We are watching

our democracy die. So very sad.

[sarcasmo]

14. Yep. The Fascist party blocks a voting rights bill. Democracy dying before our eyes.

[H2Oart]

23. I don't buy it

I think we just need to vote. Forget their rules and the right wings saying this and that… get up, get in line and do it. I’m tired of this defeatist attitude the democrats are projecting. If you get 3 days instead of 6 days early vote, then plan for 3…. It’s not that hard if you really want to do it.

[spudspud]

25. The main concern though is with republican controlled

states lowering the threshold for claiming that the vote was fraudulent, and replacing electors with those they choose. Your GOTV efforts won't matter if they simply choose to replace your vote with theirs.

[H2Oart]

26. Still

Still a large turnout, legal voting records, proper ID, matching signatures….. this is how to defeat the right wing shitstains. When Election Day comes and a majority of democrats vote, and the results show on national tv, then there is the documentation. If the right screams fraud, then it’s them committing it, because “ they are in charge”.

[LoisB]

3. President Biden is doing the best he can. It's too bad the decks (Manchin/Sinema, the GQP, and

the media) are all stacked against him. Should he run in 2024, he will get my vote.

[BlueIdaho]

4. Hold votes anyway.

Make every Congress member and Senator go on record. America deserves to know just exactly who hates our democracy - if Sinema and Manchin want to stop Americans from voting - let them show up in the bright light of day and show us exactly who they are. The GQP is a foregone conclusion. If our two DINOS want to join them - make them do it in the public record.

[agingdem]

6. hold a vote ...

every week..I want Sinema primaried and I want her primary opponent to campaign on her NO votes...I don't like Manchin but I loathe vile middle school mean girl Sinema ...

[BlueIdaho]

8. Exactly.

Hold votes on each individual piece of the Build Back Better agenda. Over and over again. They can both go to hell as far as I’m concerned.

[Fiendish Thingy]

9. Absolutely- Make. Them. Vote.

Get them on record supporting the filibuster over voting rights.

[Salviati]

13. Exactly

I want them on the record. We've protected them long enough.

[CBHagman]

20. Yes, exactly. Make the content the story and make lawmakers answer for what they do or don't do.

And I'm referring to lawmakers of both parties. What we cannot do is say, "Oh, well, I guess the opponents are almighty and we are helpless," and just go home.

And we need to push back against the idea that Republican rule is our future, that the Republicans are somehow not scandal-ridden and morally bankrupt. There's a lot that's going to come out in the next few months, and it isn't going to be pretty.

[electric_blue68]

27. Absolutely. And some can be used in ads later on.

[DonCoquixote]

5. oh really?

"Just before Biden arrived at the Capitol to huddle with all 50 Senate Democrats, the Arizona senator said on the Senate floor that the filibuster … protects the country “from wild reversals on federal policy” when control of Congress changes hands." Funnt, when the GOP gets control, they have NO problem reversing policy.

Sinema, as a bisexual, do realize you are empowering the people that will do anything and everything to take away your vote, if n t outright hang you. Do not think because they are throwing money at you that they do nto have that goal in mind.

[Wuddles440]

17. Want to bet that the timing...

of her remarks was coordinated with McTurtle? She could have made her statement anytime, but choose to do it just prior to Biden's arrival. Coincidence? I think not. Both her and Manchin are critical to McTurtle's obstructionist game plan and he plays them masterfully.

[Miguelito Loveless]

7. Well, there goes my last bit of hope

Manchin and Sinema get to murder democracy without getting blood on their hands.

[CBHagman]

21. "Last bit of hope"?

Has the November election taken place?

Have Manchin and Sinema blocked every court case and shut down registration of new voters?

Is everyone who disagrees with them permanently silenced?

[Miguelito Loveless]

22. I look at the trend,

the treachery, the utter cluelessness of the chunk of the populace, the willful ignorance of another chunk, and my heart sinks.

[electric_blue68]

28. I get my moments of hopelessness, and...

I go by two considerations
"It ain't over till it's over"

and

"Things go along - until they don't" (approx)
That's a view of a historian looking over decades, centuries where thing are going along as they are until something suddenly changes them.

Now it could be one sudden thing, or it could be not well noticed or correlated lower, smaller changes that add up to a tipping point!

[wiggs]

10. This is much more a GOP failure to govern than a Biden miss. Much more media time

should be devoted to gop obstruction and self-interest...but most networks and outlets will only be interested in Biden's approval numbers

[HUAJIAO]

11. DEMS need to go after repukes big time in ads, media,

everywhere, let the country know just what the fascists are doing....!!!!!!!!!!!!

[cilla4progress]

12. I hope / assume there is a

Plan B??

[bucolic_frolic]

15. When voters realize it's their last vote, they might vote in droves

[yaesu]

16. If our voting rights are not protected the republic is finished, the end. nt

[LW1977]

18. Hopefully the blue states can join Canada.

Our Democracy is dead because of a greedy WV Senator on a yacht and a color blind Senator from AZ with the worst case of menopause ever.

[left-of-center2012]

19. I know Canadians

They don't want us.

[myohmy2]

24. this system...

...loves to keep shit the way it is...to keep the fuckin' coming our way...

...why do we have to beg and fight for the basics?

...fight for things that just should be?

"...risk of changing the filibuster is greater than the risk of what’s going on in the states,"

...so, an undemocratic made-up chickenshit rule is worth more than saving our democracy?

...okay...