Filibuster splits Democrats as Biden pursues codified abortion rights
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Judy Miller weighs in on Democrats' beliefs on revoking the filibuster to pass pro-choice legislation.
A Washington Post columnist wrote Wednesday that abolishing or changing the filibuster in an effort to advance abortion legislation was "myopic political thinking" and that it would the hurt the Democratic Party more in the long term.
"Pretending Democrats can carve out a narrow filibuster ‘exception’ that Republicans won’t exploit to their own ends later requires a willful blindness to political reality," The Washington Post's James Hohmann wrote.
He argued that Republicans would "use an abortion exception" to advance their own abortion restrictions when they have the votes.
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Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., defends the Senate's 60-vote filibuster in a floor speech on Jan. 19, 2022. (https://www.senate.gov/legislative/floor_activity_pail.htm)
He noted that in 2013, the Senate Majority Leader at the time, Harry Reid, D-NV., helped to change the filibuster rules for presidential nominations, but excluded the Supreme Court. Hohmann said this "opened the door" in 2017, when Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-KY., assisted in lowering the vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees to allow the Republican-controlled Senate to confirm Justice Neil Gorsuch.
President Biden said he supported ending the filibuster to advance abortion legislation during a press conference at the NATO Summit.
"Biden surely understands these dynamics, and he’s spoken eloquently in the past about the virtues of the filibuster. So why did he announce his support for suspending the rules? It’s the same reason he backed 'going nuclear' this year to expand voting rights, which also fell short," The Washington Post columnist wrote.
President Joe Biden speaks in the State Dining Room of the White House, Friday, April 1, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
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He said that the president is "insecure" about his political standing with Democratic activists. "He is worried liberal voters will stay home this fall if he doesn’t take steps to secure reproductive freedom. And his aides know that abortion is not an issue he has always been comfortable discussing," Hohmann wrote.
The Washington Post columnist said that it would be "madness" to change the filibuster ahead of the midterm elections.
"It’s time for Biden, Harris and the current Democratic leader, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), to do the same and reject demands from their left," he concluded.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., discusses Democrats proposed filibuster changes at a press conference in the Russell Senate Office Building on Jan. 11, 2022. (Tyler Olson/Fox News)
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Democrats have pushed for ending the filibuster and packing the Court since the Dobbs opinion draft leaked in May.
The White House has made it clear that Biden does not support packing the Supreme Court.