New York Democratic Congressman Adriano Espaillat told radio host Dean Obeidallah that Democrats like Senator Kyrsten Sinema must face “consequences” for not getting in line behind President Joe Biden’s voting rights push.
On Friday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Dean Obeidallah Show, the host asked the congressman what can be done to surmount the obstacles that Sinema and Senator Joe Manchin present to Biden’s quest to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
Espaillat told Dean “there must be consequences”:
Dean: If President Biden and [Senator] Schumer cannot in any way “motivate,” “pressure,” whatever the word is, Manchin and Sinema, can President Biden use executive orders, is there other things he can do to convey to our fellow Americans the importance of this if we don’t have legislation?Rep. Adriano Espaillat: Look, first there must be consequences—it is as simple as that. The President calls you and you’re gonna derail his top–one of his top initiatives– our vision. There’s gotta be consequences for this. And you know they’re very, very precise–they fit each state and each leader in very precise ways.And so I’m sure once the consequences are laid out for them, there may be an opportunity for a meeting of the minds. But there’s gotta be consequences for this. That’s just the way
that it is.Too much is riding on this for there not to be consequences on this.Ultimately, yes, the President may have to resort to it executive order but I think from now until then there’s still a big stretch and much must be done to push these two senators to line up and be in lockstep with our leadership if they are part of our team–it’s as simple as that.
Watch above via MSNBC.