Republican Senator Mitt Romney has issued a warning to the Democrats that President Donald Trump will easily win again in 2024 if they continue pushing to end the filibuster.
In a statement from the Senate floor, Romney said:
“The United States Senate is one of our vital democratic institutions, and the power given to the minority in the Senate and the resulting requirement for political consensus are among the Senate’s defining features.
“Note that in the federal government, empowerment of the minority is established through only one institution: the Senate.
“The majority decides in the House; the majority decides in the Supreme Court; and the president, of course, is a majority of one.
“Only in the Senate does the minority restrain the power of the majority.
“There is also a reasonable chance Republicans will win both houses in Congress, and that Donald Trump himself could once again be elected president in 2024.
“Have Democrats thought what it would mean for them — for the Democrat minority — to have no power whatsoever?”
Mitch McConnell said: “Look, I’ve known, liked and personally respected Joe Biden for many years.
“I did not recognize the man at the podium yesterday.
“The president’s rant, rant, yesterday was incoherent, incorrect and beneath his office.
“Yesterday, with the world’s largest megaphone, he invoked the literal Civil War and said we are on the doorstep of autocracy.
“Talked about domestic enemies. Rhetoric unbecoming of a president of the United States.
“President Biden has chosen to fail his own test,” Mitch said.
“I believe the threat to our democracy is so grave that we must find a way to pass these voting rights bills,” Biden said in Atlanta yesterday.
“And if that bare minimum is blocked, we have no option but to change the Senate rules, including getting rid of the filibuster for this.”
“The only thing standing between getting voting rights legislation passed and not getting passed is the filibuster, I support making an exception on voting rights of the filibuster,” he added.
From The Hill:
McConnell’s remarks come a day after Biden traveled to Georgia to make a high-profile case for Senate Democrats changing the legislative filibuster, which requires 60 votes for most legislation to advance, in order to pass election and voting legislation.
Republicans have blocked three such bills over the past year.
Biden, as part of his speech, framed the fight over voting rights as a matter of historical significance, suggesting lawmakers must decide whether they want to “be on the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis,” referencing the former U.S. president and the president of the Confederacy, respectively.
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