by Eric Thompson, December 23, 2021
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) recently wrecked President Biden’s hopes of destroying federal election integrity laws by not supporting HR1 or ending the Senate filibuster. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) just crushed Biden’s hope of getting his Build Back Better (BBB) massive spending bill passed.
Biden has been pushing to radically federalize elections, in spite of the Constitution.
“If we can get the congressional voting rights done, we should do it. … There’s nothing domestically more important than voting rights,” said Biden.
Sinema has also singlehandedly burst Biden’s desperate attempt to weaken election integrity laws by stating she will protect the 60-vote filibuster threshold.
Fifty Senate votes are needed to trash the filibuster. If the filibuster is terminated, a simple majority vote could be held to destroy election laws.
“She continues to support the Senate’s 60-vote threshold, to protect the country from repeated radical reversals in federal policy which would cement uncertainty, deepen divisions, and further erode Americans’ confidence in our government,” LaBombard said.
In an attempt to win over Sinema, Democrats watered down their original H.R.1 proposal. Yet Sinema’s spokesman John LaBombard told Politico she will protect the filibuster’s bipartisan standard and ultimately election integrity.
“I don’t want to become too dramatic,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) told Politico, “but voting rights may be the only thing we have to at least halt the trek away from democracy.”
Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) also voiced concerns that if election integrity laws are reinstated before the 2022 midterms, America’s democratic republic will no longer exist.
“I don’t want it to be constrained by trying to do it before the end of the year. I don’t know that you have to do it before the end of the year,” Clyburn told Politico. “I just want us to get a bill done that will help preserve this democracy because if we don’t, I think we’ve lost this democracy.”
Rep. Anthony Brown (D-MD) echoed Clyburn’s urgency. “I want to see Biden start running people in and out of the White House,” Brown said. “I want to start by seeing the president using the full leverage of his office. It’s a crisis in democracy and the president needs to address it.”
MSNBC anchor Al Sharpton warned that if election integrity is not weakened, the Democrat base voters will not vote for Democrats.
“An inaction at this point would lead to an inaction of Black voters. People are saying, ‘If they don’t do this, I’m not voting,’” Sharpton said. “People are saying they feel betrayed.”
All eyes will stay fixed on Senators Sinema and Manchin in 2022.
With all the fighting taking place between party moderates and the far left, Senate Majority Leader Schumer’s ability to lock in an agreement on HR1 and the BBB, is unlikely.
WrittenBy: Eric Thompson, host of the Eric Thompson Show. Follow Eric on his website ETTALKSHOW, and social media platforms, MAGABOOK, Twellit & Twitter.