Manchin, Sinema Defy Biden on Removing Filibuster for Abortion Law as Republicans Rally Opposition

U.S. Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. and Joe Manchin, D-W.V., both told news outlets Thursday they would not go along with President Joe Biden’s request that Congress remove the Senate filibuster to “codify Roe v. Wade.”

At a news conference in Spain Thursday during Biden’s last day of an overseas trip, Biden called on Congress to codify abortion protections in response to the Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, but before his plane landed in the U.S. later that day, the two Democratic senators had already stopped his plan dead in its tracks.

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Biden: Axe Filibuster for Pro-Abortion Legislation

 President Joe Biden called on Congress Thursday to remove the filibuster and pass a federal law to “codify Roe v. Wade “after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled there was no Constitutional right to an abortion last week.

Biden previously called for a similar removal of the filibuster to push through voting rights legislation, but Congress did not follow suit.

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Senate Caps History-Making Day by Rejecting Filibuster Change

The Senate late Thursday rejected a Democratic effort to alter the filibuster in order to pass their long-sought voting bills over unanimous Republican opposition, capping one of the most consequential days in the history of the chamber.

The vote failed 48-52 after Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema voted as they said they would for months, joining a unanimous Republican caucus in opposition and denying their party the necessary support for the change to take effect. The change, had it been adopted, would have established a “talking filibuster” pertaining to the voting bills only, allowing any senator to speak for or against them for as long as they wanted but lowering the 60-vote threshold for passage to a simple majority.

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Senate Democrats Fail to Change Filibuster, Handing Biden Stinging Defeat on Voting Legislation

Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell

Senate Republicans blocked the voting rights legislation, likely triggering Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to move forward with changing Senate filibuster rules.

The motion to move forward with ending debate and taking a vote on the bill, Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, failed in the Senate by 51-49. Sen. Schumer joined Republicans “in order to enter a motion to reconsider the vote,” according to the Senate Press Gallery.

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Commentary: The Democrats Embrace Voter Intimidation

Person voting in poll booth

Joe Biden has claimed “democracy is under attack” and that to save “democracy” we must annihilate Senate norms such as the legislative filibuster. If you don’t believe that this crisis exists and act immediately, his argument goes, the sun won’t rise ever again; the oceans will dry up, and you’re an evil racist like Jefferson Davis, Bull Connor, and George Wallace (Democrats every last one—and Biden actually sought Wallace’s support back when Biden wanted to be liked by the Wallaces and Byrds of the Democratic Party.) But why let facts get in the way of a good Grandpa Dementia bedtime story? 

Of course the real reason for the shrieking hysteria from Biden and the Left is that they’re confronting what is likely to be an electoral tsunami in the fall. Most Americans with half a brain have realized after a year under the Biden presidency that the Left’s policies and politicians are absolute failures. That’s why Biden has a 33 percent approval rating. And it’s why moderate Democrats like Senators Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) want nothing to do with Biden, his policies, or his efforts at rewriting Senate rules.

Progressives of course had a premonition that their policies would wreak havoc upon the American people. To protect themselves from electoral accountability they immediately introduced a bill to federalize election law for the Left’s partisan advantage. This comes as no surprise from the Democratic Party of Tammany Hall, which has a long, sordid history of rigging election laws to hang onto power through the intimidation of voters. 

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Liberals Push for Court-Packing After SCOTUS Blocks Biden’s Vaccine Mandate

Liberal commentators took to social media to express their disappointment following the Supreme Court’s decision to block President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate.

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Thursday that Biden’s mandate, passed through the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), was unconstitutional, invoking the “major questions” doctrine and ruling that Congress did not grant OSHA the authority to issue the mandate.

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Biden’s Rough Week: Supreme Court Loss, Economic Woes, Pushback from Democrats

President Joe Biden saw a flurry of setbacks on a range of key issues this week, making it one of his toughest since taking office.

Biden addressed those difficulties in a speech Friday after losses in Congress, the Supreme Court, the court of public opinion and with the economy.

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Democrats Threaten Ousting Filibuster, but Moderates Hold the Line

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., is once again right in the middle of a heated Congressional debate as Democratic leadership threatens to overthrow the long-established filibuster rule to push through voting legislation that would give the federal government broad powers over state elections.

“If Republicans continue to block our efforts, the Senate will debate and consider changes to Senate rules on or before January 17, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to protect the foundation of our democracy: Free and fair elections,” Democratic Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer said.

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Commentary: Democrats Gin Up January 6 Hysteria to Pass Election Rigging Bill

As we approach the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, Democrat leaders in Congress are ginning up hysteria in order to pass a bill that would transform our elections and give Democrats permanent majorities in all three branches of government. In addition, Democrats’ faux outrage deflects from the root causes of the breach which include four years of multiple attempts by Democrats to overturn the 2016 election results, loose election laws, and lax Capitol security.

But to pass their election rigging bill, Democrats first need to eliminate the Senate filibuster. That would allow them to pass the bill with only a simple majority of votes and not the 60 votes needed to overcome a presumed Republican filibuster.

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Senate Republicans Filibuster Government Funding Bill Over Debt Ceiling Provision With Three Days Until Shutdown

Senate Republicans Monday filibustered Democrats’ bill to fund the government and suspend the debt ceiling, days before a potential federal shutdown and possible debt default.

Republicans vowed for weeks to oppose a debt ceiling increase and urged Democrats to put the provision in their filibuster-proof $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. But Democrats have thus far refused to do so, and with their bill’s failure Monday, Congress now has just three days to pass a new funding bill to avoid a government shutdown set to begin Friday at midnight.

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Progressives Renew Calls to Abolish Filibuster, Pack Supreme Court After Texas Abortion Decision

Progressives renewed their calls to abolish the Senate filibuster and expand the Supreme Court after it did not block a Texas law restricting abortion access from going into effect.

“Republicans promised to overturn Roe v Wade, and they have,” New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote just after midnight Thursday, invoking the 1973 landmark Supreme Court case. “Democrats can either abolish the filibuster and expand the court, or do nothing as millions of peoples’ bodies, rights, and lives are sacrificed for far-right minority rule.”

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