Stabenow reacts to Biden’s renewed call for voting rights and changing the filibuster

President Joe Biden is doubling down on his push to expand and protect voting rights across the country. In fact, Biden said during a speech on Tuesday that he’s willing to get rid of the filibuster to achieve those goals.

In every state, including ours, they’re trying now to restrict our choices to take away our freedom to vote…It’s not an exaggeration to say this is fundamentally turning our democracy and our constitution on its head.” —Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)

This push comes as Republicans continue to push lies about widespread voter fraud that doesn’t exist and pass state laws across the country meant to restrict access to the ballot box. And comes just a little over a year since former President Donald Trump urged his supporters to “fight much harder” before they stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

Listen: Sen. Debbie Stabenow discusses voting rights and possible changes to the filibuster.

Guest

U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow is a Democrat from Michigan. She says passing voting rights legislation is more urgent than ever.

“In every state, including ours, they’re trying now to restrict our choices to take away our freedom to vote,” says Stabenow. “It’s not an exaggeration to say this is fundamentally turning our democracy and our constitution on its head.”

On changing the filibuster rules, she says discussions are ongoing about what that might look like. But Stabenow says a likely path forward might be to go back to a “talking filibuster,” instead of the current procedural maneuver that can instantly kill legislation without senators having to take any sort of action.

“We have 50 Republicans voting ‘no’ matter what we do,” she says. “And we have two Democrats who don’t want to change the 60-vote threshold. So we’re discussing, OK, let’s just keep the filibuster, but go back to the way it was supposed to be, back to the way it was in the very beginning.”