White House press secretary Jen Psaki: This was a devastating, angering week
White House press secretary Jen Psaki tells 'The View' that Democrats need to keep fighting after their election overhaul bills were defeated.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki turned to venting Friday as she expressed her frustration over the Biden administration's "devastating" week following the failure of multiple Democratic policy initiatives to pass the Senate.
During an appearance on ABC's "The View," Psaki lamented the Senate voting down proposed federal voting legislation, as well as a move to scrap the Senate filibuster, and encouraged angry supporters to "go to a kickboxing class" and "have a margarita" over the weekend before continuing the fight.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki responds to a question from "The View's" guest co-host Linsey Davis on the future of federal voting legislation - January 21, 2022. (Screenshot/ABC) (The View screenshot)
"The path forward is we have to keep fighting," Psaki told guest co-host Linsey Davis, who asked where she saw things going on the voting bill following Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Sen. Joe Manchin's, D-W.Va., decision to vote with all Republicans in opposing changes to the filibuster.
"I think this week has been frustrating, devastating, angering, all of those things," she added. "There are so many activists across this country who have been so central to getting to this point. I mean just a year ago, there were more people who were opposed to filibuster changes in the Senate, so we’ve made some progress on that front, but we've got to stay at it."
Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have said they don't want to undo the filibuster. (Getty Images/Reuters)
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"So my advice to everyone out there who’s frustrated, sad, angry, pissed off: Feel those emotions, go to a kickboxing class, have a margarita, do whatever you need to do this weekend, and then wake up on Monday morning. We've got to keep fighting," she said.
Psaki argued that the topic of federal voting legislation needed to be continuously pushed on senators because such changes would be permanent "to make sure people's rights are protected."
She added that people across the country needed to educate themselves on what their rights were when it came to voting.
"There's a lot we need to do on that front, and that's going to rely on the energy and the anger of that activism as well," she said.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Monday, Jan. 10, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
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Psaki committed to Democratic talking points that have cited various voting laws enacted by a number of Republican-led state legislatures as amounting to voter suppression; however, Republicans maintain they ensure election integrity.
The Democrat-backed voting legislation failed to pass the Senate Wednesday with a vote of 49-51. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer changed his vote to "no" in order to offer a motion to reconsider the vote. The subsequent vote to change the filibuster procedure failed by a vote of 52-48 to maintain the current rules.