The first four months of Joe Biden’s Presidency have been bumpy to say the least.
Joe Biden is struggling to get one of his top legislative priorities passed through the Senate.
And one Democrat Senator just made an announcement that could be the death knell for Joe Biden’s top legislative priority.
S.R. 1, the so-called “For the People Act,” is the centerpiece of the Democrats’ legislative agenda.
Republicans, who call the bill the “Corrupt Politicians Act,” argue that the bill will rig elections by opening voting up to massive fraud, which will make it so the GOP can never win an election again in America.
S.R. 1 calls for mandatory voter registration, universal mail-in voting, eliminating enforcement of voter ID laws and universal ballot harvesting.
However, there is one catch for the Democrats.
In order to pass S.R. 1, the Democrats need all 50 of their Senators to support nuking the filibuster, which would allow the Democrats to pass the bill on party line votes.
And West Virginia Democrat Senator Joe Manchin just ruined Joe Biden’s plans by coming out in support of another piece of legislation Democrats hope to use to rig elections.
“I believe Democrats and Republicans feel very strongly about protecting the ballot boxes allowing people to protect the right to vote making it accessible making it fair and making it secure and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, if we apply that to all 50 states and territories, it’s something that can be done – it should be done,” Manchin told ABC. “It could be done bipartisan to start getting confidence back in our system.”
Manchin supporting an alternative bill ruins any chance of Biden getting the 50 votes needed to ram through S.R. 1 on a party line vote.
Of course, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act would reinstate a section of the Voting Rights Act struck down by the Supreme Court, which forced mostly Republican states in the south to get Justice Department approval before passing election integrity measures.
But Manchin coming out in full opposition to nuking the filibuster means Democrats have little hopes of passing either piece of legislation.
“If you do it for one time you basically destroy the Senate as we know it,” Manchin added.
Because of Manchin’s opposition, Democrats have no way of passing these bills before the 2022 midterms as they hoped to do.
Political Animal News will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
