Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Wednesday his Democratic colleagues are telling him they are concerned they will not be able to win elections in the future if Congress does not pass the Democrats’ voting reform bills.
In an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, he said Senate Democrats have been aggressively lobbying Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to support making adjustments to the filibuster rules to get it done.
REPUBLICANS PLOT FILIBUSTER REVENGE STRATEGY AGAINST SENATE DEMOCRATS
“Just about every senator — every single one of the 50 is talking individually to Joe Manchin, to Kyrsten Sinema, and they’re saying things like, ‘I’ll lose my election if the legislature is allowed to do this in my state. We’ll lose our majority, but more importantly, we’ll lose our democracy,’” Schumer said.
Schumer also confirmed that Manchin and Sinema are not the only Senate Democrats opposed to eliminating the filibuster. He suggested that other members of his caucus are also opposed to “eliminating it totally” but would support adjustments to the rules.
The filibuster requires 60 votes for the Senate to move forward with a vote on most bills. Even though Democrats have a 50-seat majority in the Senate, Republicans are able to use the filibuster to block key legislation such as voting reform.
The majority leader said nine senators met with Sinema for two hours Tuesday and that nine senators planned to meet with Manchin on Wednesday. Their goal is to get Manchin and Sinema to support some kind of filibuster rule change so that Democrats can pass voting reform. The Democrats’ voting reform agenda includes the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act.
Sinema previously indicated she was skeptical about creating a carve-out in the filibuster. In an interview with The View last August, she said that if Democrats created an exception for voting reform, Republicans would be able to undo that legislation when they take control. Manchin told CNN last year that he “can’t imagine” supporting a carve-out for voting reform. He also voted against a Democratic election bill, the For the People Act, last June.
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When shown a clip of a speech he gave in 2017 supporting the filibuster, Schumer said he changed his mind because President Donald Trump changed the Republican Party. He argued that voting rules Republican-led state legislatures have passed over recent years pose a direct threat to democracy.
“It’s not aimed at the public in general. It’s aimed at Democratic constituencies,” he said. “This is a dastardly act, and it goes beyond any kind of politics, Democrat or Republican. It’s a real threat to our democracy. If we don’t believe in the sanctity of voting, that’s it, that’s the well screen of our democracy.”
