By Casey Harper | The Center Square
President Joe Biden’s aggressive push to federalize election law is likely over after proposed legislation failed to pass the U.S. Senate and a second vote to end the filibuster also failed.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, blasted Democrats from the Senate floor Thursday night, saying they should have overturned the filibuster rule to pass the legislation.
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
“I can understand Republicans [not supporting the bill], but this I do not understand. I do not understand why two Democrats who presumably understand the importance of the Freedom to Vote Act, and as I understand it, will vote for the Freedom to Vote Act, are not prepared to change the rules so that that bill could actually become law,” Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats, said. “That I do not understand.”
Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Joe Manchin, D-W.V., have been the focus of the debate and the target of Sanders’ comments. Sinema spearheaded the pushback, giving a speech that defied the president last week.
“There’s no need for me to restate my longstanding support for the 60-vote threshold to pass legislation,” Sinema said from the Senate floor last week, responding to Biden’s Atlanta speech where he called for “getting rid of” the filibuster. “There’s no need for me to restate its role in protecting our country from wild reversals of federal policy. This week’s harried discussions about Senate rules are but a poor substitute for what I believe could have and should have been a thoughtful public debate at any time over the past year.”
Biden addressed whether the stalled legislation was the end of his voting rights push during a press conference Thursday. When asked, he would not lay out what executive measures he may carry out, but said he has beefed up Department of Justice efforts to find illegal discrimination.
“We have begun to organize in ways that we didn’t before in communities beyond the civil rights community to make the case to the rest of American people what’s about to happen, what will happen if, in fact, these things move forward,” he said.
The voting legislation has major implications for states, particularly those that have passed recent election integrity laws. Democrats have blasted laws like those passed in Georgia, though they are less restrictive in many ways than some other Democrat-led states.
“Democrats label anything they disagree with as racist. Georgia’s voting law does not prevent black people from voting like Senator Warnock says it does,” tweeted former football star Herschel Walker, who is Black and a Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia, which has been the center of voting controversy. “This is not about voter suppression, it is about President Biden and the federal government wanting more power.”
Stacey Abrams, who has questioned election integrity in the past and is running for governor in Georgia, also responded to the bill’s defeat.
“52 Senators – two Democrats and all Republicans – failed their voters, allowing the filibuster to stand in the way of critical voting rights legislation,” she said. “But we are determined to continue this fight on the ground here in Georgia.”
Biden is also under fire for remarks during the same press conference where he balked on saying whether he believed the next election would be legitimate, something that received major pushback.
“Well, it all depends on whether or not we’re able to make the case to the American people that some of this is being set up to try to alter the outcome of the election,” Biden said when asked about whether he would trust the midterm election results. “And it’s one thing – look, maybe I’m just being too much of an optimist. Remember how we thought not that many people were going to show up to vote in the middle of a pandemic? We had the highest voter turnout in the history of the United States of America.
“I think you’re going to see the people who they’re trying to keep from being able to show up, showing up and making the sacrifice that needs to make in order to change the law back to what it should be,” he added.
Biden’s comments sparked a flurry of criticism from critics who said the president acted irresponsibly by questioning the integrity of the election before it even occurred.
“Can you imagine the media outrage if President Trump said this?” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said in response to the remarks.
Along with Georgia, Texas has been at the forefront of election law debates. Texas Democrats made national news when they fled the state for Washington, D.C., last year in an attempt to prevent Republican lawmakers in their home state from having the quorum necessary to pass new election security laws. Texas, along with states around the country, passed laws after questions over the security of the 2020 election with increased mail-in voting, ballot harvesting and billions of dollars from private groups that paid for things like ballot drop boxes.
Beto O’Rourke, former Democratic presidential candidate who is running for governor of Texas, has made voting changes a major campaign issue, touting it during a meet and greet in San Antonio this week.
“It’ll literally decide the future and the fate of the state of Texas,” he said. “So we’ve got to overcome this with great organizing and turnout. We are not going to win unless we show up … We’re going to be there and work to earn those votes so that we can win this race.”
Bernie Sanders had an 8 1/2 hours filibuster in 2010 and it was a boast that he included in his pos book. It only a useful tool if it is useful for him and not for anyone else. He is the true definition of a hypocrite.
In the past, Dem/Progs, including Schumer, loved the filibuster.
C-SPAN videos show leading Democrats, including Schumer, PRAISING the filibuster in the US Senate
Just google it, and you will see the videos.
Dem/Progs have used the filibuster on numerous occasions, when it was to THEIR advantage.
Dem/Progs HATE the filibuster, when it is INCONVENIENT
The US would be a much stronger country, if it did not have such fickle, self-serving, extremist, political folks.
If Dem/Progs had proposed a BALANCED election reform bill, some RINO Republicans likely would have voted for it as well.
But, oh no, extremist Dem/Progs cannot help themselves.
If it had not been for two very courageous DEMOCRAT Senators, the Republican party would have been rendered irrelevant FOREVER
Dem/Progs would have grabbed centralized command/control of all facets of the US, and of the US people FOREVER
All of us would have to march IN LOCKSTEP to their idiotic socialistic follies, such the extreme-leftist BBB bill, cooked up by Sanders and Wyden.
See URL to get an education.
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/build-back-better-would-cost-3-95-trillion-overt-the-next-decade
Vermonters must turn out EN MASSE to overwhelm any election shenanigans in November 2022, to oust the Dem/Prog-GWSA legislators, and the GWSA career bureaucrats
Otherwise, they will centrally command/control all of us, and will tax-fee-surcharge all of us to DEATH, for decades, supposedly to “fight climate change”, a totally futile endeavor, that would be similar to Vermonters fighting the sun.
A few days ago, Democrats were unable to change the rules of the US Senate in order to pass the “Freedom to Cheat bill”.
Their proposed legislation would have:
– Eliminated voter ID
– Prevented states from cleaning voter rolls; remove dead people, out-of-state people, phantom/made-up people
– Allowed universal mail-out of ballots, requested or not
– Allowed for ballots to be turned in days after the election
– Allowed for universal ballot harvesting by leftist black-ops operators
– Allowed universal, UNSUPERVISED, ballot drop boxes, to enable night-time ballot box stuffing
BTW, Almost all of this is already allowed in Vermont
See URL
GEORGIA, ARIZONA, WISCONSIN, PENNSYLVANIA, MICHIGAN ELECTIONS ARE FRAUDULENT
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/georgia-s-elections-are-fraudulent
It would have destroyed elections in the US and Democrats knew this.
That’s why they wanted it, and why the fake-news US and VT media promoted it.
The vote failed 52-48, with very courageous Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema joining 50 Republicans.
The US people would have been totally screwed, FOREVER
You will find Manchin’s statement only on True North Reports, not on any other VT Media outfit.
A perfect example of how Vermonters are being brainwashed by DENYING information, and feeding fake information, 24/7/365
SENATOR MANCHIN:
“I cannot support such a perilous course for this nation when elected leaders are sent to Washington to unite our country, not to divide our country,” he argued.
“Let this change happen in this way, and the Senate will be a body without rules,” Manchin warned.
“We’ve changed the rules,” in the past, Manchin said. “But we changed them with the rules. We didn’t break the rules to change the rules. But all of a sudden now we just can’t do it anymore. Just got to blow it up.”
“The rule book means that the rules changes are done on the basis of broad, bipartisan consensus, not imposed on the minority by raw majority power,” he went on. “No matter who is in power.”
Bernie Sanders has absolutely nothing to say if it were not for situations like this. He is an anti-contributor to civilization, like every day is “opposite day.” Like his sidekick, AOC, putting them in the news is mere amusement for most people. Why does Vermont continually vote this arrogant fascist into government? Is it for the same reason they pay their “diversity and equity” manager $125K a year to do nothing except stir an empty pot? I’m beginning to think it’s because Vermonters need to feel noticed nationally, like some sort of Baader-Meinhof, the terrorist group that gave its name to the phenomenon of a thing you’ve just noticed or experienced suddenly cropping up constantly.
Bernie wouldn’t be chagrined if he and Biden could only learn from their mistakes…….In the case of the Freedom to Vote Act, Bernie and Biden still haven’t learned that the American people don’t like being called racists.
Instead of making a rational case based on the facts in hopes of gaining support for the voting rights act, Biden and the far left chose to go negative and tell the US Senate and the American people that failure to vote for the act was racist……..A remarkably dumb mistake…….After more than a combined 80 years in Washington, Biden and Bernie still haven’t learned from their mistakes.
Poor little commie won’t get his dream of a centralized government run by buffoons like him and
AOC’s terrorist squad. Just retire you ol fool like lying leahy
I wrote Manchin and told him how much damage Bernie has done to Vermont and how full of s— he is and to stand strong against him (Manchin was going to be meeting with the idiot).
The senate was deliberately designed by the framers to be the higher chamber where laws from the house would be debated and voted on. The 60 vote margin was to ensure a bipartisan vote. Imagine a simple majority vote and one party government. The filibuster was designed to stop a majority party from being able to shut the minority party out. This system has worked for both parties for over 250 years. So, I propose that if the the republicans win back control of the senate, they should change the rules just to show how hypocritical the democrats really are. And here’s Bernie lecturing democrats when he goes by the independent title. What a farce he is and imagine he’s chairman of the budget committee. A man who has never run a business, had an employee or a real job until he luckily won mayor of Burlington by 10 votes. Vermont should be ashamed of having this carpetbagger from Brooklyn, NY representing Vermont in the Senate. Bernie the new millionaire from Vermont. He got the mine and his Bernie Bros got the shaft!
If Biden (supposedly) got 80 MIL votes (the most EVER in history) why then does the election process need to be changed or fixed?
It seems to me, if 80 million Democrats, plus 75 million Republicans turned out to vote, there is PLENTY of freedom to vote.
I think DemProgs want to change the rules, so only Democrat votes are counted, with the rest adjudicated by the Democrats to the “despicables” category.
Scr.. you, Bernie
Bernie is such a Communist. He doesn’t like the rules we have. Please Bernie, go buy a home on Lake Moscow. You’ll fit right in.
He would get deported to Ukraine
Here’s Vermont Barking Buffoon again showing just how he stands, or his standing
to destroy the country !!
The filibuster in place for over 250 years, and because the DemocRATs and Vermont’s
Independent Socialist Senator, need to shove through their socialist/communist agenda,
Sanders wants it gone……… this carpetbagger is a fool.
If the Democrats had a good plan it would be bipartisan, but Americans are waking up to
the DemocRATs power grab !!
Bernie, you’re siding with the DemocRATs, the same party that stopped you when you were
running for President, did I mention your a fool ……………….
If you ever find yourself in the same room as Vermont’s Barking Buffoon, keep your distance; because when he get wound up, he slobbers and then he spits. Voice of past experience. I know Bernie doesn’t read these comments, or remarks from his constituents for that matter, but his twinkly eyed staff minions who read for him, and then write his ‘responses’ do. So, twinkly eyed minions, tell your boss not to slobber and spit.
The Freedom to Vote Act, as proposed by the progressive/liberal/socialist/democrats, and our own Vermont Barking Buffoon, is essentially a pathway to election corruption and voter fraud. There are no checks and no useful oversights in it. In the 2020 election, I received two blank ballots, and I live alone, except for my dog, and of course I gave him one, but he just crewed on his. I imagine I could have given that one to a democrat ballot harvester who would have submitted it for the left side, but, I mean, my dog really chewed it badly.
We already have a strong right and ‘Freedom to Vote,’ no one is trying to interfer with that.
Those who are wisely voting against this abomination, are actually looking to preserve voter and election integrity. Good on them.
According to Stacey Abrams of Georgia, quoted in the scree above, “52 Senators – two Democrats and all Republicans – failed their voters, allowing the filibuster to stand in the way of critical voting rights legislation,” she said. “But we are determined to continue this fight on the ground here in Georgia.” Well, no they didn’t. 50 republicans and two democrat senators did not fail their voters. They were smart enough to try and protect fair and honest elections. Voters need to thank them. If you come close to a democrat who wants to argue the point, be careful and stand back, or you might get hit by slobber and spit…
Take over the government and have CENTRALIZED COMMAND/CONTROL of everything, are the key words of the Socialist Dem/Progs
Create a lot of chaos and noise to distract people and move in for the kill
Thank God, there were just two Great Americans, i.e., Manchin and Semina, as otherwise the DeM/Prog crooks would have scr…. all of us, FOREVER.
Manchin, a national hero, and very courageous, stopped the Sanders/Wyden-socialist 4.490 TRILLION BBB bill, which was 77% Social Program benefits, and 23% Energy/Environment, etc., subsidies
BBB also includes 30,000 MW of very-expensive, offshore wind turbines by 2030
He did the whole world a favor by partially stopping the wind/solar gravy-train of Wall Street tax-shelter seekers, such as Warren Buffett and others.
EXCERPT from:
BIDEN 30,000 MW OFFSHORE WIND SYSTEMS BY 2030; AN EXPENSIVE FANTASY
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/biden-30-000-mw-of-offshore-wind-systems-by-2030-a-total-fantasy
The Biden administration announced on October 13, 2021, it will subsidize the development of up to seven offshore wind systems (never call them farms) on the US East and West coasts, and in the Gulf of Mexico; a total of about 30,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
Biden’s offshore wind systems would have an adverse, long-term impact on US electricity wholesale prices, and the prices of all other goods and services, because their expensive electricity would permeate into all economic activities.
The wind turbines would be at least 800-ft-tall, which would need to be located at least 30 miles from shores, to ensure minimal disturbance from night-time strobe lights.
Any commercial fishing areas would be significantly impacted by below-water infrastructures and cables. The low-frequency noise (less than 20 cycles per second, aka infrasound) of the wind turbines would adversely affect marine life, and productivity of fishing areas.
Production: Annual production would be about 30,000 x 8766 h/y x 0.45, capacity factor = 118,341,000 MWh, or 118.3 TWh of variable, intermittent, wind/weather/season-dependent electricity.
The additional wind production would be about 100 x 118.3/4000 = 2.96% of the annual electricity loaded onto US grids.
That US load would increase, due to tens of millions of future electric vehicles and heat pumps.
This would require a large capacity of combined-cycle, gas-turbine plants, CCGTs, to cost-effectively:
1) Counteract the wind output variations, MW, aka grid balancing
2) Fill-in wind production shortfalls, MWh, during any wind lulls
Such lulls occur at random throughout the year, and may last 5 to 7 days in the New England area.
These URLs provide examples of similar wind/solar lull conditions in Germany and New England
Excerpt from:
“BUILD BACK BETTER” WOULD COST $4.490 TRILLION OVER THE NEXT DECADE, IF PROVISIONS WERE MADE TO LAST 10 YEARS
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/build-back-better-would-cost-3-95-trillion-overt-the-next-decade
I am not surprised at the lack of public trust in Washington, DC, and elsewhere. The games of smoke and mirrors played in Washington are off-the-charts outrageous.
Never, ever, has there been such a level of deceit, as Democrats have inflicted on the US People, since January 2021, using a controversial election in 2020 (see Appendix), to obtain government power, to relentlessly implement:
– An increased size and intrusiveness of the federal government
– A major change in US demographics by means of just-walk-in, anybody-is-welcome, open borders
– Increased Democrat command/control over the federal government and the American people to “Remake America”
– Increased Federal government control of elections, which is specifically forbidden by the US Constitution
It’s very easy to understand Bernie,they maybe Democrats but not Communist’s like your self and others in the Commiecrat party.
So if a bill can’t get to the Senate floor on its merits, change the rules!
“…who presumably understand the importance of the Freedom to Vote Act, and as I understand it, will vote for the Freedom to Vote Act, are not prepared to change the rules so that that bill could actually become law” Or maybe they recognize the Constitution that, by obvious intent of the founders, delegated the power to regulate the election process to the states.
Biden “… this is being set up to try to alter the outcome of the election” – The intent of what’s being set up is to guarantee the integrity of the election, not the outcome. Insofar as there has been fraud in previous elections and that is prevented, it may alter the outcome but altering the outcome is a byproduct of election integrity, not the intent. It is at least as reasonable to assess the goal of the undemocratic Democrat election proposals “is being set up to try to alter the outcome of the election.”
Even if O’Rourke is elected governor, the regulation of the elections will still be in the hands of the state legislature, not the governor.