President Biden is even doubting himself. After a series of brutal defeats, the President admitted that he isn’t sure he believes Democrats will succeed in their push to change Senate filibuster rules in order to pass voting rights legislation.
The Hill reports:
“The honest-to-God answer is I don’t know whether we can get this done,” Biden said after leaving a more-than-hour-long meeting with Senate Democrats to persuade them to change the Senate’s rules.
“I hope we can get this done but I’m not sure,” he said.
During his speech, Biden said that failure to pass legislation could lead to “election subversion” but noted that Democrats will try again even if they fail to pass their bill.
“Who counts the vote? That’s what this is about, that’s what makes this so different from anything else we’ve ever done,” he added.
“I don’t know that we can get it done but I know one thing, as long as I have a breath in me, as long as I am in the White House, as long as I’m engaged at all, I’m going to be fighting to change the way these legislatures [are] moving,” he told reporters before stepping away from a microphone without taking follow-up questions.
On Thursday, after the House passed the voting rights bill, moderate Democrat Senator Kyrsten Sinema revealed she would not vote alongside Democrat colleagues to change filibuster rules. The shocking move sent Democrats scrambling to muster support for the bill or change Sen. Sinema’s mind while progressive Democrats went on to attack the Arizona Senator.