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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced Monday the Senate would vote on whether to repeal the 60-vote threshold known as the filibuster to pass “voting rights legislation” despite once calling the effort a “doomsday to democracy.”
Schumer claimed Democrats must abolish the filibuster to “protect our Democracy”, blaming Republicans for “hijacking” the Senate rules.
“If Senate Republicans continue to abuse the filibuster to prevent this body from acting, then the Senate must adapt,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Tuesday.
#BREAKING: Schumer says Senate will debate and vote on changing filibuster rules by January 17 unless Republicans allow a vote on voting rights bill: “If Senate Republicans continue to abuse the filibuster to prevent this body from acting, then the Senate must adapt.” pic.twitter.com/QHP2xC8Igm
— Forbes (@Forbes) January 4, 2022
Schumer cited former Ku Klux Klan Exalted Cyclops Robert Byrd in justifying his move to repeal the filibuster in a Monday letter to Democrat colleagues.
“We must adapt. The Senate must evolve, like it has many times before. The Senate was designed to evolve and has evolved many times in our history. As former Senator Robert Byrd famously said, Senate Rules ‘must be changed to reflect changed circumstances.’ Put more plainly by Senator Byrd, ‘Congress is not obliged to be bound by the dead hand of the past,’” Schumer wrote.
But Schumer felt very differently about the filibuster as recently as 2017, when Democrats were the minority in the Senate.
“Without the 60-vote threshold for legislation, the Senate becomes a majoritarian institution like the House, much more subject to the winds of short-term electoral change. No Senator would like to see that happen, so let’s find a way to further protect the 60-vote rule for legislation,” Schumer said.
SEN. SCHUMER in 2017: “The legislative filibuster… is the most important distinction between the Senate and the House. Without the 60-vote threshold for legislation, the Senate becomes a majoritarian institution like the House… no Senator would like to see that happen.” pic.twitter.com/FXHN3nIx0I
— Senate Republican Communications Center (@SRCC) March 16, 2021
And in 2005, Schumer rightly said eliminating the filibuster would create a “rubber stamp for dictatorship.”
FLASHBACK: @SenSchumer in 2005: Eliminating the filibuster would “be a doomsday for democracy.”pic.twitter.com/NW3ZzoumHy
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) January 3, 2022
Republican Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) called out Schumer on Tuesday for trying to eliminate the filibuster for political expediency, noting that doing so will end up eliminating compromise on both sides, depending on who’s in the majority.
FILIBUSTER: In Senate floor remarks, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) warned Senate Majority Chuck Schumer (D-NY) not to change filibuster rules: “What goes around comes around.” pic.twitter.com/qcm4m1NFe7
— Forbes (@Forbes) January 4, 2022
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) lambasted the “voting rights” bill Schumer’s trying to get passed without the filibuster, calling it a “Democratic power grab” that has “nothing to do with voting rights.”
When Chuck Schumer says we need to abolish the filibuster to pass “voting rights,” he’s talking about a bill to mandate ballot harvesting, ban voter ID, and give taxpayer funding to campaigns.
This has nothing to do with voting rights. It’s a Democratic power grab.
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) January 3, 2022
Former Trump adviser Stephen Miller also noted Schumer’s bill actually attempts to weaken state election security.
Dear media: legislation overriding state election security isn’t “voting rights”—it’s voting fraud. A voting rights bill would protect the franchise through voter ID, citizenship verification, identity confirmation, residency documentation. Ds want voting fraud—not voting rights.
— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) January 4, 2022
Schumer is trying to eliminate the filibuster to pass his bill not because he cares about “voting rights”, but because he’s panicking over Democrats’ and Joe Biden’s plummeting approval numbers ahead of the 2022 midterm election.
Democrats don’t give two damns about January 6. They care about exploiting January 6 in order to push forward an agenda to kill the filibuster and mandate corruption-ridden voting practices nationwide. This, from Politico, is the whole ballgame. pic.twitter.com/d80wdu5XUK
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) January 3, 2022
“Much like the violent insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol nearly one year ago, Republican officials in states across the country have seized on the former president’s Big Lie about widespread voter fraud to enact anti-democratic legislation and seize control of typically non-partisan election administration functions,” Schumer said in his letter to Democrats.
The Senate will debate the elimination of the filibuster on or before January 17 if Republicans don’t help Democrats pass their election bill, Schumer added.
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