Thursday 30 June 2022 06:15 PM Democratic Senators Manchin and Sinema WON'T back changing filibuster to codify ... trends now
Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema remain steadfast in their defense of the filibuster, their offices said, despite public pressure from all the way up to President Biden.
Manchin's office told DailyMail.com that the West Virginia Democrat's position had not changed in light of the president's new comments, and Sinema's office referred DailyMail.com to a statement the Arizona Democrat made after the leaked Supreme Court decision: 'Protections in the Senate safeguarding against the erosion of women's access to health care have been used half-a-dozen times in the past ten years, and are more important now than ever.'
In new comments during a press conference in Madrid on Thursdsay Biden said he would back an exception to the filibuster to pass federal abortion legislation and blasted the Supreme Court's 'outrageous' repealing of Roe v. Wade.
Speaking to reporters at the end of a NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, he condemned the ruling and its impact.
'America is better positioned to lead the world than we ever have been,' he said.
'But one thing that has been destabilizing is the outrageous behavior of the Supreme Court of United States in overruling not only Roe v. Wade, but essentially challenging the right to privacy.'
Biden also defended his qualifications to be the 'messenger' on abortion rights even as allies and critics on the left condemned him for not acting sooner.
Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema remain steadfast in their defense of the filibuster, their offices said, despite public pressure from all the way up to President Biden
And he said he would support a carve-out so that Democrats in Congress could pass laws to protect abortion rights, even without 60 votes in the Senate.
'The first and foremost thing we should do, is make it clear how outrageous this decision was and how much it impacts - not just on a woman's right to choose, which is a critical, critical piece - but on privacy generally,' Biden said.
'And so I'm going to be talking to the governors as to what actions they think I should be taking as well.'
He added that the 'most important thing' was his belief that the protections granted in Roe v. Wade should be codified into law.
'The way to do that is to make sure that Congress votes to do that,' the president said.
'And if the filibuster gets in the way, it's like voting rights, it should be we provide an exception for this.'
He added that Congress should not only codify abortion rights but also the 'right to privacy,' which he said the Supreme Court 'wiped out' in its decision with Roe. He said codifying privacy rights would protect a 'whole range of issues,' including same-sex marriage.
President Joe Biden gave a brief press conference on the last day of the NATO summit in Madrid on Thursday
But the plan may go nowhere. It would need a unanimous vote by Democratic senators to go into effect - and two Democrats are known to be opposed.
Biden previously supported the idea of a carve-out in order to pass legislation to protect voting rights - a bill that ultimately failed to make it into law, derailed by conservative Democrat Senators Joe Manchin
