Sinema And Manchin Sink Vote On Changing Filibuster

The Associated Press reports:

Voting legislation that Democrats and civil rights leaders say is vital to protecting democracy collapsed late Wednesday when two senators refused to join their own party in changing Senate rules to overcome a Republican filibuster after a raw, emotional debate. The outcome was a stinging defeat for President Joe Biden and his party, coming at the tumultuous close to his first year in office.

Despite a day of piercing debate and speeches that often carried echoes of an earlier era when the Senate filibuster was deployed by opponents of civil rights legislation, Democrats could not persuade holdout senators Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia to change the Senate procedures on this one bill and allow a simple majority to advance it.

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“Voting legislation that Democrats and civil rights leaders say is vital to protecting democracy collapsed when two senators refused to join their own party in changing Senate rules to overcome a Republican filibuster after a raw, emotional debate.” https://t.co/JJD2xoW5pQ

— Michael Tackett (@tackettdc) January 20, 2022

The first one there to shake Kyrsten Sinema’s hand is John Kennedy, one of the 8 GOP senators who voted to overturn Biden’s election victory. https://t.co/EDkQCrHnke

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) January 20, 2022

A furious Sanders on Manchin/Sinema: “It’s not just this vote. These are people who I think have undermined the President of the United States. They have forced us to go through five months of discussions which have gotten absolutely nowhere.”

— Kate Riga (@Kate_Riga24) January 20, 2022

There will be lots of time to be mad at Manchin/Sinema but we should also take time to be grateful to the 48 Dems – including Senate lifers like Leahy and Feinstein, red staters like Tester and in-cycle folks like Kelly – who did the right thing, and Schumer for forcing the issue

— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) January 20, 2022

Asked Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, as she left the floor after casting her vote against changing the Senate rules, what she thinks the next steps on voting rights are.

“Have a nice night,” she said.

— Allison Pecorin (@AllisonMPecorin) January 20, 2022

I’m sorry we lost, but I’m not sorry we fought for this. The generational struggle for a real multiracial democracy continues.

And Sinema will never win elective office again.

— Ezra Levin (@ezralevin) January 20, 2022

Let’s be clear: By refusing to end the filibuster, Manchin and Sinema are giving Republicans the green light to cheat their way to victory in 2022, 2024, and every election thereafter.

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) January 19, 2022

The noise you hear is the complete, total collapse of Kyrsten Sinema’s political career.

— Michelangelo Signorile (@MSignorile) January 20, 2022