Biden Appears to Swipe at Manchin and Sinema During Tulsa Speech: ‘Two Members of the Senate Who Vote More with My Republican Friends’
During a speech commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa massacre in which a White mob killed scores of Black residents, President Joe Biden addressed the issue of voting rights and the recent voting restrictions enacted in several states since the 2020 election.
Biden slammed the voting laws passed by Republican-controlled legislatures, calling them an “assault” on voting rights.
The president told the small crowd gathered for the event,
As for the act of voting itself, I urge voting rights groups in this country to begin to redouble their efforts now to register and educate voters. And June should be a month of action on Capitol Hill. I hear all the folks on TV saying, “Why doesn’t Biden get this done?” Well, because Biden only has a majority of effectively four votes in the House and a tie in the Senate, with two members of the Senate who vote more with my Republican friends. But we’re not giving up.
The president did not name names, but it’s a good bet that he was referring to Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), who are widely regarded as centrist Democrats. They have perhaps been the most outspoken Democratic opponents of abolishing or even reforming the filibuster, which requires most pieces of legislation to clear a 60-vote cloture hurdle in order for the Senate to begin and end debate on them.
If Biden was in fact alluding to these senators, there’s a slight problem with his claim that they “vote more with my Republican friends.” That’s because both Manchin and Sinema have voted on bills (amendments to bills notwithstanding) in line with Biden’s position 100% of the time so far, according to running tallies at FiveThirtyEight.
In his speech, Biden touted the House’s passage of the For the People Act – a voting rights bill – as well as the proposed John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Neither bill has been taken up by the Senate, where they would require 60 votes to clear procedural hurdles.
Manchin has become increasingly impatient with reporters who ask him about the filibuster, which was the reason the Senate failed last week to authorize a commission to investigate the January 6 Capitol riot. The vote was 54 in favor, 35 against.
When asked if he’s reconsidered his position on the filibuster Tuesday, Manchin told reporters, “I’m not separating our country, OK?”
Watch above via Fox News.
