Biden Sees Scant Hope for Voting Bills While Vowing to Fight On [View all]
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
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.
= new reply since forum marked as read
