President Joe Biden this week defended the legislative filibuster after being asked during a CNN town hall if protecting it was more important than expanding or protecting voting rights.
"No. It's not," the president said, noting that he believes Congress can get both the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the For the People Act passed without having to get rid of the filibuster.
"But here's the deal," he added. "What I also want to do, I want to make sure we bring along not just all the Democrats. We bring along Republicans who I know, know better."
Biden went on to say, "I'm trying to bring the country together. And I don't want the debate to only be about whether or not we have a filibuster or exceptions to the filibuster or going back to the way the filibuster had to be used before."
While running for the White House in 2020, Biden said that he agreed with former President Barack Obama that the filibuster is ''a relic of the Jim Crow era'' that is in dire need of reform.
On Wednesday, CNN’s Don Lemon asked Biden: "If it's a relic of Jim Crow, it's been used to fight against civil rights legislation historically, why protect it?"
Biden responded: "There's no reason to protect it other than you're going to throw the entire Congress into chaos and nothing will get done. Nothing at all will get done. And there's a lot at stake. The most important one is the right to vote.
"But it goes beyond that," he continued. "For example, wouldn't my friends on the other side love to have a debate about the filibuster instead of passing the Recovery Act?"
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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