During a town hall on CNN on Thursday, President Joe Biden said that he was open to reforming or abolishing the Senate filibuster.
Biden said, “Here is the deal, if, in fact, I get myself into at this moment the debate on the filibuster, I lose at least three votes right now to get what I have to get done on the economic side of the equation, foreign policy side of the equation.”
He continued, “What I have proposed in the meantime is it used to be the filibuster the way it worked — and we have ten times as many — more than that, times the filibuster has been used since 1978. It used to be you had to stand on the floor and exhaust everything you had, and when you gave up the floor, and someone else sought the floor, they had to talk until they finished. You’re only allowed to do it a second time. After that, it’s over. You vote. I propose we bring that back now, immediately.”
He added, “But I also think we’re going to have to move to the point where we fundamentally alter the filibuster. The idea that, for example, my Republican friends say that we’re going to default on the national debt because they’re going to filibuster that and we need ten Republicans to support us is the most bizarre thing ever heard. I think you’re going to see if that gets pulled again. You’ll see an awful lot of Democrats being ready to say not me. I’m not doing that again. We’re going to end the filibuster. But it still is difficult to end the filibuster beyond that. That’s another issue.”
Anchor Anderson Cooper said, “But are you saying once you get this current agenda passed on spending and social programs, that you would be open to fundamentally alter the filibuster or doing away with it?”
Biden said, “That remains to be seen exactly what that means in terms of fundamentally altering it or whether or not we just end the filibuster straight up.”
Cooper asked, “When it comes to voting rights, just so I’m clear, though, you would entertain the notion of doing away with the filibuster on that one issue? Is that correct?”
Biden said, “And maybe more.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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