Bernie Sanders open to supporting primary challenges against Sinema and Manchin – live | US news

Joe Biden will hold a press conference this afternoon, as the president marks one year since he took the oath of office.

The president is expected to field tough questions about Democrats’ failure to pass their voting rights bill and the Build Back Better Act, as well as his unimpressive approval rating.

Speaking at her daily briefing yesterday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki instead stressed the accomplishments of Biden’s first year in office, including boosting coronavirus vaccination rates and getting the bipartisan infrastructure bill signed into law.

“We need to build on that. The work is not done. The job is not done. And we are certainly not conveying it is,” Psaki said.

“So, our objective — and I think what you’ll hear the president talk about tomorrow — is how to build on the foundation we laid in the first year.”

The press conference is scheduled to begin at 4pm ET, and the blog will have updates and analysis once it starts. Stay tuned.

Worth noting: most Senate Democrats are actually sitting in the chamber to listen to the debate over their voting rights bill, per CNN.

The Senate is expected to hold a procedural vote on the bill later today, and it will almost certainly fail. Because of a Republican filibuster, the bill will need 60 votes to advance, which will not happen in the 50-50 Senate.

In his own Senate floor speech today, majority leader Chuck Schumer reiterated his argument that members have a duty to pass voting rights legislation and strengthen America’s election systems.

Schumer sharply criticized Republicans for downplaying the impact of the voting restrictions enacted by 19 states in the past year.

“Our Republican colleagues don’t even acknowledge that we have a crisis,” Schumer said, noting that minority leader Mitch McConnell claimed states were not engaged in voter suppression.

Schumer outlined some of the restrictions that states have enacted, including limiting early voting and hours at polling places and making it harder to register to vote.

“Just as Donald Trump has his ‘big lie,’ Leader McConnell now has his: ‘States are not engaging in trying to suppress voters whatsoever,’” Schumer said.

Senator Joe Manchin will deliver a floor speech this afternoon outlining his position on changing chamber rules to allow voting rights legislation to move forward.

“It is such an important issue that all of us have grave concerns about, and it’s worthy of the time we spend,” Manchin told CNN.

“I would like to see us stay on the bill. There’s no use to try to bring this to finality by having a vote that’s going to fail tonight. Let’s just stay on it.”

As of now, the Senate is expected to hold a procedural vote on whether to advance Democrats’ voting rights bill, which passed the House last week.

That vote, which will need the support of 60 members because of the filibuster, is expected to fail. And as long as Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema continue to oppose rule changes, the bill has no path to passage in the Senate.

Mark Kelly, one of the last Senate Democrats who had not yet clarified his position on filibuster reform, has now said he supports rule changes to allow voting rights legislation to advance.

The Arizona Republic reports that Kelly, who is up for reelection this year, supports a “talking filibuster” rule only for Democrats voting rights bill.

“If campaign finance and voting rights reforms are blocked again this week, I will support the proposed changes to pass them with a majority vote,” Kelly said in a statement.

“Protecting the vote-by-mail system used by a majority of Arizonans and getting dark money out of our elections is too important to let fall victim to Washington dysfunction.”

A talking filibuster would still require 60 Senate votes to cut off debate on a proposal, but that debate would eventually come to an end anyway as the filibusters gave up the floor. Once they did so, the debated bill could be passed by a simple majority of 51 votes.

Democrats have been discussing a talking filibuster rule as a potential compromise for those who do not support eliminating the filibuster all together.

However, as of now, the talking filibuster proposal does not have the necessary support for approval because Joe Manchin has said he wants all rule changes to attract bipartisan support, and Republicans remain staunchly opposed to weakening the filibuster.

Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are also experiencing some external pressure as they resist efforts to change the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation.

EMILY’s List, the progressive group that backs women candidates who support abortion rights, said it would withhold its endorsement from Sinema because of her stance on filibuster reform.

“Our mission can only be realized when everyone has the freedom to have their voice heard safely and freely at the ballot box,” EMILY’s List president Laphonza Butler said in a statement released yesterday.

Butler noted that her group has not contributed to or endorsed Sinema’s campaign since she first won her Senate seat in Arizona’s 2018 elections.

“Electing Democratic pro-choice women is not possible without free and fair elections. Protecting the right to choose is not possible without access to the ballot box,” Butler said.

“So, we want to make it clear: if Sen. Sinema can not support a path forward for the passage of this legislation, we believe she undermines the foundations of our democracy, her own path to victory and also the mission of EMILY’s List, and we will be unable to endorse her moving forward.”

Greetings, live blog readers.

Progressive senator Bernie Sanders has said he may consider supporting primary challengers to Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, the two holdouts in Democrats’ debate over whether to amend the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation.

Sanders told reporters yesterday that he believes “there is a very good chance” the two senators will face primary challenges because of their stance on the filibuster.

When asked if he would consider backing such primary challengers, Sanders replied, “Well, yeah.”

Manchin brushed off the warning, saying, “I’ve been primaried my entire life. That would not be anything new for me.”

But Sanders’ comments underscore the growing rift in the Democratic party over the filibuster and, more broadly, the best response to Republican obstructionism.

While progressives support using every tool at their disposal to circumvent Republican tactics, centrists like Manchin and Sinema still underscore the importance of bipartisanship, which has become increasingly rare in Washington.

Joe Biden will hold a press conference later today, and he will almost certainly be asked what that divide says about his party and whether he can get anything else done in Congress with members of his own party at odds.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.