President Biden on Tuesday forcefully demanded Senate Democrats blow up the chamber’s filibuster rules to advance a package of partisan voting laws, throwing himself into the cause after the rest of his economic agenda collapsed.
Mr. Biden has been under pressure from Black activists to more aggressively champion a pair of Democratic voting bills that have been blocked by GOP filibusters in the Senate.
In a speech from the Atlanta University Center, Mr. Biden reversed previous opposition to the so-called nuclear option in the Senate and gave his full support for blowing up the filibuster.
“I believe the threat to democracy is so grave that we must find a way to pass these voting rights bills, debate them, vote, let the majority prevail and that bare minimum is blocked. We have no option but to change the Senate rules including getting rid of the filibuster for this,” he said.
The speech marked a dramatic shift for Mr. Biden, who spent 36 years in the Senate and advocated to keep its traditions. At a CNN Town Hall in October, Mr. Biden avoided wading into the filibuster debate, saying it could jeopardize his economic agenda.
He has also endorsed a limited change to the filibuster rather than a wholesale elimination of it.
Mr. Biden also linked voting laws recently enacted in GOP-controlled states to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol when a pro-Trump mob stormed the building to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election.
“They failed, but democracy’s measured victory was not certain, nor was democracy’s future,” Mr. Biden said. “That’s why we are here today to stand against the forces of America that value power over principle, forces an attempted coup, a coup against the legally expressed view of the American people by sowing doubt.”
Mr. Biden’s remarks in Atlanta were his most vigorous aimed at changing the filibuster. It follows months of prodding from civil rights groups frustrate that Mr. Biden hasn’t done more to advocate for voting rights, which was a core campaign promise.
“The filibuster is not used by Republicans to bring the Senate together, but to pull it further apart,” he said. “The filibuster has been weaponized and abused while the state legislative assaults is simple, all you need in your house and senate is a pure majority.”
“State legislators can pass anti-voting laws with simple majorities. If they can do that, then the United States Senate ought to be able to protect voting rights by a simple majority,” he continued.
Lack of Republican support has doomed both voting bills unless Democrats can generate enough support to blow up the filibuster and ram the legislation through the Senate.
SEE ALSO: History As It Happens: Ending the filibuster
However, all 50 Senate Democrats need to be on board to change the rules. Sens. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, both Democrats, have been skeptical of Mr. Biden’s plan.
Mr. Manchin said that gridlock has paralyzed the Senate but scrapping the chamber’s 60-vote threshold to advance most legislation is not the way forward.
In the speech, the president also took aim at Georgia’s sweeping new election laws, passed last year, saying it amounts to voter suppression, calling it “Jim Crow 2.0.” He said it will enable partisan election officials to “turn the will of the voters into a mere suggestion.”
Several voting advocate groups boycotted the event, accusing Mr. Biden of engaging in a photo op instead of negotiating with Republicans who have blocked the bills.
Among the groups who are not attending are civil rights groups Black Voters Matter, the New Georgia Project Action Fund, the Asian American Advocacy Fund and the GALEO Impact Action Fund, which represents Latino voters.
Also absent from Mr. Biden’s speech was voting rights activist Stacey Abrams, a Democratic candidate for governor in Georgia.
Ms. Abrams reportedly skipped the event because of a scheduling conflict, although Mr. Biden downplayed her absence.
“I spoke to Stacey this morning. We have a great relationship. We got our scheduling mixed up. … We’re all on the same page,” Mr. Biden told reporters.
The two partisan bills would give the federal government more control of the nation’s election system. The Freedom to Vote Act would set new standards for mail-in voting, while the John Lewis Voting Rights Act would restore portions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which were struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013.
• Tom Howell Jr. and Alic Harris contributed to this report.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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