Biden Says He’s Open To Altering Voting Filibuster For Voting Rights – And More

President Joe Biden has said that he would be open to altering the filibuster in the U.S. Senate.

The president also added that doing so could hamper his ability to pass his economic agenda.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked Biden during a town hall: “When it comes to voting rights, just so I’m clear though, you would entertain the notion of doing away with the filibuster on that one issue, is that correct?”

“And maybe more,” said Biden. “I lose at least three votes right now to get what I have to get done on the economic side of the equation, the foreign policy side of the equation.”

Moderate Sens. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona) both have stated that they would be opposed to altering the voting filibuster. In order to make the change, all Democrats would need to be on board.

“We’re going to have to move to the point where we fundamentally alter the filibuster,” Biden said. “[It] remains to be seen exactly what that means in terms of fundamentally – on whether or not we just end the filibuster straight up.”

Biden also brought up the Republican opposition to the debt ceiling. “The idea that, for example, my Republican friends say that we’re going to default on the national debt because they’re going to filibuster that and we need 10 Republicans to support us is the most bizarre thing I ever heard.”

He continued: “I think you’re going to see – if it gets pulled again – you’ll see an awful lot of Democrats being ready to say, ‘not me. I’m not doing that again. We’re going to end the filibuster.’ But it still is difficult to end the filibuster beyond that.”

Biden’s statements in July were markedly different. “There’s no reason to protect [the filibuster] other than you’re going to throw the entire Congress into chaos and nothing will get done,” he said. “Nothing at all will get done. And there’s a lot at stake.”

Article by Elizabeth Letsou