Former President Barack Obama chastised Senate Republicans who are keen to stop a massive election reform bill championed by Democrats in control of both chambers of Congress and the White House.
Any plan to filibuster the legislation, which GOP members argue is a federal takeover of the election system that will create opportunities for fraud, is “not acceptable,” Obama said during a tele-town hall with former Attorney General Eric Holder and grassroots activists on Monday.
MANCHIN DID NOT PERSONALLY MEET WITH LEGISLATORS LOBBY FOR ELECTION OVERHAUL
Obama noted Senate Republicans were “going along with the notion that somehow there were irregularities and problems with legitimacy in our most recent election,” accusing them of being “suddenly afraid to even talk about these issues and figure out a solution on the floor [of] the Senate,” according to NBC News.
The For the People Act, which passed the House in March, would make various changes to how states conduct their elections. The legislation would allow felons who have completed their incarceration to vote, require states to use drop boxes, and allow unexcused mail-in voting in federal elections. It would also create nationwide automatic voter registration and change disclosure rules for certain politically active groups.
The Senate poses a challenge for the legislation, which has been championed by President Joe Biden and is set to be taken up by the upper chamber for consideration on Tuesday. Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has a slim, non-filibuster-proof 50-50 majority. Sixty votes are needed to proceed with consideration and break a filibuster, which Obama called a “tool for obstruction.”
“Whatever else we may argue about, the one thing we should agree on [is] the bedrock idea that we as Americans have been taught to take pride in, this is the fact that we’re a democracy,” Obama said.
Obama also noted, “The violence that occurred in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 should remind us we can’t take our democracy for granted.”
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If Democrats eliminate the filibuster, the vote would only require a 50-50 split so Vice President Kamala Harris could cast the tiebreaking vote. But both Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have repeatedly said they don’t support ending the filibuster.
Manchin, who has come out against the omnibus election reform bill, created a memo outlining what portions of the legislation he supports, gathering support from some Democrats. However, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected Manchin’s bid, claiming it was “no compromise” and “still retains S. 1’s rotten core: an assault on the fundamental idea that states, not the federal government, should decide how to run their own elections.”
