The Big Filibuster Sooper Thread

✪ Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Tuesday that he would be open to primarying Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), who do not support breaking the filibuster.

One congressional reporter asked Sanders if he would support a primary challenger to senators who do not support changing the filibuster.

Sanders responded, “Well, yeah.”

Manchin appeared unfazed by the Vermont progressive’s threat to support a primary challenge against him.“I’ve been primaried my entire life. That would not be anything new for me,” Manchin said. “It’s rough and tumble. We’re used to that. Bring it on.”

Manchin also said he would not support efforts to revive the “talking filibuster” to bypass the Senate’s centuries-old filibuster rules.

The talking filibuster would force senators that want to block consideration to talk on the Senate floor rather than just announcing that they will filibuster the legislation. After senators stop their talking filibuster, the Senate could stop legislation with just 51 votes.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) that this proposal is “not the final word” and would be “solidified” at the Democrats’ Tuesday night caucus meeting.

Asked about creating a precedent, Durbin said, “It may be hard for some reporters to believe: But there are some things that have historic value. This debate and this vote have this historic value…. And I think senators should be on the record.”

Despite the Democrats’ best efforts to bypass the filibuster, some Senate Democrats are already admitting defeat since they do not have Manchin and Sinema on board.

“I just tell people we did the best that we could,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) admitted. “I just say specifically that whoever votes no on the rules change, it’s their responsibility that we couldn’t get this done.” ✪

✪ While speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) stated that there are already laws and rules in place to ensure people “have the right to vote. We have that.” And even though people “act like we’re going to obstruct people from voting. That’s not going to happen.”

Manchin was asked, “There are a lot of people out there who are saying that you’re making it so that they’re not going to be able to vote in the next election?”

Manchin responded, “The law’s there. The rules are there. And basically, the government. The government will stand behind them and make sure they have the right to vote. We have that. The things they’re talking about now are in court. Marc Elias has an awful lot in court. The courts have struck down, like in Ohio, they struck down the gerrymandering. Things are happening, okay. We act like we’re going to obstruct people from voting. That’s not going to happen.” ✪

✪ Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Hallie Jackson Reports” that the Senate’s filibuster was “racist” in its origin and intent.

Markey added the Democrats will “ultimately have a vote on whether or not we repeal the filibuster.”

Markey said, “We need 60 votes to protect voting rights. We have 50 Democrats ready to go. Every Democrat is ready to protect voting rights. We need ten Republicans. We are can’t find Republicans to back voting rights, to stop the suppression of the votes in state after state, red state after red state where the state legislatures are making it more difficult for black and brown people to vote.”

He added, “We are hoping that this debate will touch something in Republican senator’s hearts that unleashes a historic perspective in terms of their commitment to voting rights. If it doesn’t, we need to have a debate, in my opinion, on the filibuster. It’s racist in its origin, it’s racist in its intent, and we have to ultimately have a vote on whether or not we repeal the filibuster so that we can pass voting rights without a single Republican supporting it. Which is a sad commentary on the state of the Trump Republican Party in 2022.” ✪

✪Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) called the U.S. Supreme Court “an extremist United States Supreme Court,” and claimed they “gutted the voting rights act” of 1965, which opened the door to stop black people, Hispanics, and other minorities from voting.

“When Dr. King spoke [in 1957], it was truly the case that because of restrictive state laws, that, principally, African Americans were denied the opportunity to vote,” Warren told CBS’ left-wing late-night host Stephen Colbert during a recent appearance on The Late Show. “Then in mid 1960’s passed the Voting Rights Act.”

“And voting increased over time — but then, an extremist United States Supreme Court a few years ago gutted the Voting Rights Act. That all by itself just opened the door to restricting voting,” the senator claimed:

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Warren went on to accuse former President Donald Trump of taking “millions of people down the dark hole of the big lie.”

Democrats are accusing the Supreme Court of undercutting the Voting Rights Act after it voted last year to uphold the legality of a ballot harvesting ban in Arizona.

The Arizona law invalidates ballots cast in the wrong precinct and criminalizes ballot harvesting by third parties or political campaigns. But Democrats, including President Joe Biden, have been reacting to election integrity laws by condemning them as racist.

During her Monday appearance on The Late Show, Warren also suggested that the filibuster is racist, and that she wants to “get rid” of it — to which Colbert responded by suggesting that the U.S. Senate be abolished entirely. ✪

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✪ CBS’s The Late Show host Stephen Colbert played sore loser on Monday’s show when he suggested getting rid of the U.S. Senate, calling it an “anti-democratic” institution following the Democrats’ failure to eliminate the filibuster.

Stephen Colbert was chatting with guest Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) when he made the bizarre suggestion. “If you can’t get rid of the filibuster… then what if we just get rid of the Senate? And I’m 100 percent serious here. It is the most anti-democratic institution next to the judiciary,” he said.

“No one will drop a single tear, ” he added. “I don’t understand what possible positive purpose the United States Senate provides right now.”

A visibly flustered Sen. Warren attempted a response. “I hear you,” she said. “We’re supposed to be the deliberative body… but so long as we’re tangled in the filibuster then we don’t get to do what the founders envisioned that we would.”

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Senator Warren conveniently side-stepped the fact that Democrats used the filibuster more than 300 times in 2020 when Republicans used it once. Democrats recently used the Senate filibuster to block a bill by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)  that would have sanctioned companies associated with Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Democrats have been trying to eliminate the Senate filibuster in an effort to ram through their “voting rights” legislation to federalize elections and roll back integrity measures like voter identification requirements. But their efforts failed after Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) said they won’t back the elimination of the filibuster. ✪

Colbert referred to Sinema as “Mrs. Hamburglar” on Monday’s show.✪

✪ Stevie Wonder pushed for the Senate to pass the Democrats much-ballyhooed “voting rights” legislation, urging them to “cut the ‘bull-tish’ and allow for rule changes on the filibuster.

“Any senator who cannot support the protection of voting rights in the United States of America cannot say they support the Constitution. Stop the hypocrisy, cut the ‘bull-tish,’ Stevie Wonder said in a video message on his YouTube channel.

“If you care and support our rights, do the hard work. You can’t please everybody but you can protect all of us and to keep it all the way real: The filibuster is not working for democracy, why won’t you?” the Grammy-winner concluded.✪

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