From THEHILL.COM
President Biden conceded Friday that Democrats currently lack the votes to alter the legislative filibuster to pass abortion rights legislation, adding that the party’s goal should be to pick up two seats in the midterm elections to do so.
Biden’s comments came a day after he called on senators to change the filibuster — a rule which means 60 votes are needed to end debate on most legislation — to enable lawmakers to pass legislation codifying Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion ruling overturned by the Supreme Court last week.
“Ultimately, Congress is going to have to act to codify Roe into federal law,” Biden said during a virtual meeting with Democratic governors on reproductive rights Friday afternoon.
“The filibuster should not stand in the way of us being able to do that, but right now we don’t have the votes in the Senate to change the filibuster,” Biden said. “That means we need two more votes.”
Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have expressed opposition to changing the filibuster and reiterated that their positions had not changed through spokespeople following Biden’s remarks on Thursday.
Biden on Friday also repeatedly said he thought that Republicans would try to ban abortion nationwide if they achieve majorities in the House and Senate after the midterm elections.
“This is going to go one way or the other after November,” the president said.
Biden’s rhetoric … (Read more)
