President Joe Biden got a big boost from his former boss in his pitch for the Senate to change filibuster rules to facilitate the passage of voting reform legislation opposed by Republicans resistant to federal laws that govern how states and localities run their elections.
“The filibuster has no basis in the Constitution,” former President Barack Obama, who, like Biden, was once a senator, wrote in an op-ed published by USA Today on Wednesday.
“Historically, the parliamentary tactic was used sparingly — most notably by Southern senators to block civil rights legislation and prop up Jim Crow. In recent years, the filibuster became a routine way for the Senate minority to block important progress on issues supported by the majority of voters. But we can’t allow it to be used to block efforts to protect our democracy,” Obama added. “That’s why I fully support President Joe Biden’s call to modify Senate rules as necessary to make sure pending voting rights legislation gets called for a vote. And every American who cares about the survival of our most cherished institutions should support the president’s call as well.”
SCHUMER SAYS DEMOCRATS BELIEVE VOTING REFORM NEEDED TO WIN ELECTIONS
Biden, who served as Obama’s vice president for eight years, delivered a speech in Atlanta on Tuesday calling on the Senate to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. He endorsed ending or at least curtailing the filibuster, which requires 60 Senate votes, rather than a simple majority of 51, to pass most legislation. The upper chamber is currently split 50-50 along party lines, with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tiebreaker.
“The filibuster has been used to generate compromise in the past and promote some bipartisanship,” Biden said. “But it’s also been used to obstruct — including and especially [obstructing] civil rights and voting rights.”
Biden accused Senate Republicans of lacking the “courage to stand up to a defeated president to protect the right to vote” and asked if lawmakers would rather stand with civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, or segregationists such as former Alabama Gov. George Wallace or Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
The speech elicited sharp criticism from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Kentucky Republican called the remarks “profoundly unpresidential.”
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, has said the upper chamber will vote on rule changes to the filibuster by Jan. 17. A plan leadership is putting in motion puts pressure on Democratic holdouts Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona to go along with the changes.
