Sinema All But Sinks Biden’s Voting Rights Agenda in Floor Speech

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) said she will not vote to change the filibuster during a floor speech on Thursday.

The freshman senator has made her opposition to such a move clear in the past, but some Democrats hoped that Sinema would be open to a carve out in order to pass voting rights legislation.

President Joe Biden delivered a speech in Atlanta on Tuesday and urged passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. The House passed a hybrid version of the bills on Thursday morning. It will now move to the 50-50 Senate, where it is all but dead on arrival thanks to the 60-vote threshold required for passage.

Sinema’s speech came just before Biden headed to Capitol Hill to meet with Senators to convince filibusterphiles to vote to lower the vote threshold for his voting rights agenda. The White House was reportedly blindsided by the move.

Im her remarks, Sinema stated that she supports the votings rights bills, but said that “while I continue to support these bills, I will not support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division infecting our country.”

She added, “There’s no need for me to restate my longstanding support for the 60-threshold to pass legislation. And there’s no need for me to restate its role protecting our country from wild reversals in federal policy.”

The senator denounced “toxic political rhetoric” and said she remains “stubbornly optimistic because this is America.”

After his lunchtime meeting with senators about passing voting rights, Biden told reporters, “I hope we can get this done.”

Watch above via C-SPAN 2