Today's politics recap
- Joe Biden held a marathon press conference on the eve of the one-year anniversary of his inauguration. “It’s been a year of challenges, but it’s also been a year of enormous progress,” the president said. He responded at times contentiously to questions from reporters about his failures to get his Build Back Better platform passed, and his plummeting poll numbers.
- Joe Manchin – the West Virginia Democrat who has so far blocked much of Biden’s key agenda – spoke on the Senate floor in defense of the filibuster. He made it clear he would not vote to change the procedure to support voting rights reform. Getting rid of the rule, Manchin said, would be “perilous” for the Senate and the US.
- Bernie Sanders warned he may support primary challengers against Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, the two holdouts in Senate Democrats’ debate over changing the filibuster to pass a voting rights bill. 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.
- After hours of lively debate, Republicans, as expected, blocked Democrats’ voting rights legislation from advancing. The Senate now debating a rules change put forth by Democrats to allow the legislation to advance to a final vote regardless, but that effort is also expected to fail.
We’re closing out this blog, but we’ll be updating our coverage of tonight’s voting rights debates. In the meantime, give my colleague Sam Levine’s analysis piece a read:
Updated
Susan Collins, a Republican of Maine, has entered into a heated, passive-aggressive exchange over voting rights with Jon Ossoff, a Democrat of Georgia.
Collins claimed that the Democrats’ voting rights legislation was too long and that she would have voted once more for the 1965 Voting Rights Act that she voted to reauthorize in 2006. In fact, she said, she voted “enthusiastically” for extending Voting Rights Act, and bristled at Ossoff for calling her and other Republicans out for voting down voting rights. “I’m not sure the senator from Georgia was even born in 1965,” she said. “Surely he is not confusing” the current bill with the reauthorization.
Ossoff, who was born in 1987, responded that he was referring to Collins’ refusal to replace provisions of the VRA that were gutted by the Supreme Court with the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would do. The court specifically asked Congress to update Sections 4 and 5 of the VRA.
With “great respect” for Collins, Osoff said, “what I was respectfully noting ... was what I believe to be an inconsistency between voting consistently to reauthorize [the VRA] ... but then not voting to even allow debate in this body” on the latest voting bills.
Updated
Republicans have now blocked the Democrats’ voting rights legislation for the fifth time in 6 months.
The Senate now debating a rules change to exempt the bill from 60-vote threshold to advance. Speaking in favor of amending the rules, Angus King of Maine asserted: “If we had the rules that we have today we wouldn’t have the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act, because it was too easy to stop anything.”
King questioned why Republicans who oppose Democratic legislation wouldn’t at least want bills to advance to a vote. Democrats are not now moving to end the filibuster, but to return to a “talking filibuster” – a system wherein the chamber’s voting rights debate could be brought to a close and the bill advanced, once Republicans seeking to block a vote have run out of turns to speak.
Republicans, as expected, block voting rights protections from advancing
The motion end debate and move to a final vote failed 49-51. It needed 60 votes to pass.
Senate leader Chuck Schumer switched his vote to a no in the end, for a procedural reason - so he can attempt to change Senate rules to allow a simple majority to advance the legislation to a final vote.
Of course, holdouts Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema likely won’t join their Democratic colleagues’ effort to change the rules.
The Senate vote to end debate on the bill and move to a final vote has failed, as expected. Sixty votes were needed to bypass a Republican filibuster.
Democrats are now expected to try to change rules so that they can move onto a final vote with just a simple majority,
Senator Roy Blunt claimed that GOP restrictions on voting access weren’t as severe as they appear, arguing states were rolling back unusual expansions they made in 2020 to accommodate voters during the Covid-19 pandemic. But that’s not true. Several of the measures do away with longstanding laws.
- Georgia Republicans imposed new identification requirements on mail-in ballots, which had been in place since 2005.
- Arizona Republicans made it harder to stay on a list of voters who permanently receive a mail-in ballot. The list has long been widely used in the state.
- Montana Republicans got rid of same day registration, which had been in place since 2006.
Updated
Democrats closed out their pleas to pass voting rights legislation with a fiery speech from Georgia senator Raphael Warnock.
He emphasized the importance of passing voting rights protections at all costs. “History is watching us. Our children are counting on us,” he said.
Warnock: "You cannot remember MLK and dismember his legacy at the same time... I will not sit quietly while some make Dr. King a victim of identity theft." pic.twitter.com/GAoZEQdgv9
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 20, 2022
For his colleagues who refused to act, he had a cutting message: “You cannot remember MLK and dismember his legacy at the same time,” Warnock said. “I will not sit quietly while some make Dr. King a victim of identity theft.”
The state legislature in Georgia, dominated by Republicans, passed sweeping new restrictions on voting access following the election of Democrats Warnock and Jon Ossoff to the Senate in 2020, and Joe Biden’s victory in the state.
Updated
Bernie Sanders of Vermont said today is a “sad day” for the US, singling out Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for their obstruction.
“I regard it as a very sad day for our country, and I mean this very sincerely, that not one Republican in this body is prepared to vote for this bill,” he said.
“Now, I understand why that is the case,” he continued. “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.”
The progressive Vermont senator told reporters on Tuesday that he would support primary challengers to Manchin, a Democrat of West Virginia, and Sinema, A Democrat of Arizona.
The Supreme Court rejected a bid by Donald Trump to withhold documents from the congressional committee investigating the 6 January insurrection.
Documents that the committee is seeking include diaries, visitor logs, drafts of speeches and handwritten notes, held by the National Archives and Records Administration. The court has yet to decide whether to hear a broader appeal of lower court rulings that the former president could not assert executive privilege to shield materials from being handed over.
Read more:
Senator Mike Crapo, a Republican of Idaho, just delivered a speech full of misinformation, defending voting restrictions.
With the help of my colleague, the voting rights reporter Sam Levine, I’ve sorted through his speech:
- Crapo cited 2020 election turnout as a reason not to pass voting rights protections, disregarding the changes in voting rules to make it easier for citizens to vote amid the pandemic.
- He claimed that it was a “myth” that “Republican state legislatures are enacting laws that will roll back early voting.” He cited Iowa’s 20-day early voting as an example, failing to mention that Iowa Republicans shortened the early voting period from 29 days to 20 last year.
- He claimed that Georgia’s voting restrictions preventing the distribution of water and food to voters waiting in line to cast ballots applies only to “political organizations”. The Georgia law prevents any “person” – not just political groups – from providing food and water to people in line.
- “This law of anti-electioneering or anti-vote-buying is standard practice in many states,” Crapo claimed. While it is common for states to have anti-electioneering statutes at the polls, the Georgia law went further to explicitly ban food and water, which is not common. “Georgia already had a ban on electioneering around the polls and if that’s what this was really about they could have written something narrower, such as something that prevents the mention of candidates on any food or water being handed to voters,” Rick Hasen, an election law professor at the University of California, Irvine, told the Washington Post in March.
Updated
On the Senate floor, New Mexico senator Ben Ray Luján is detailing how voting restrictions block many Latino and Native Americans from casting their ballots.
“These are American citizens whose rights were taken away for partisan advantage,” he said.
WATCH: Senator Luján addresses the Senate on Voting Rights and filibuster reform. https://t.co/WYLKarU8Oe
— Senator Ben Ray Luján (@SenatorLujan) January 19, 2022
“History will not look kindly on inaction at this critical moment, and we must show the American people that we will not flinch when faced with a choice to protect our democracy or let it crumble before our eyes,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Senate has been debating the Democrats’ voting rights bill, which the chamber is expected to vote down at about 19:45 local time.
Democrats have snuck the bill onto the Senate floor, and circumvented an initial filibuster attempt by tacking it on as an amendment to an unrelated Nasa bill – not unlike the way some parents sneak vegetables into their children’s mac and cheese.
But Democrats still need 60 votes to bypass a Republican filibuster to end debate and start voting on the measure - which they don’t have. So, they’ll move to try to change the filibuster rules. That’ll fail as well, as Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema remain adamant against changes to the filibuster.
U.S. Senate debate on #VotingRights continues – LIVE on C-SPAN2 https://t.co/ag4qbs3qA5
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 19, 2022
Votes expected to begin ~6:30pm ET. pic.twitter.com/Oh3N39TxXg
Updated
Joe Biden has wrapped up his marathon, nearly 2-hour press conference, which ran longer than the lengthiest conferences held by Donald Trump or Barack Obama.
This news conference follows criticisms that the president has been avoiding press conferences and making himself directly available to reporters. He called on 24 journalists, taking more than one question from several reporters.
Biden took questions for roughly 100 minutes from (by my count) 24 outlets out of the 30 that got a seat in the East Room for today's press conference. Roughly half of those got called on after he appeared ready to wrap. Here's who got a question (didn't recognize one reporter.) pic.twitter.com/WIG5b8MBob
— Brett Samuels (@Brett_Samuels27) January 19, 2022
Updated
In response to Peter Doocy of Fox News, who asked Biden why he was trying “to pull the country so far to the left?” the president responded: “You guys have been trying to convince me that I am Bernie Sanders. I’m not. I like him. But I’m not Bernie Sanders. I’m not a socialist. I’m a mainstream Democrat and I have been.”
.@pdoocy: "Why are you trying so hard in your first year to pull the country so far to the left?"
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 19, 2022
President Biden: "Well, I'm not. I don't know what you consider to be too far to the left." pic.twitter.com/bNnWbs1Oce
Updated
The president conceded that the child tax credit and free community college provisions were unlikely to make it through the strategy of getting his Build Back Better plan passed in “chunks”.
“They are massive things I’ve run on and care a great deal about,” he noted, but said he wasn’t sure he could get them passed soon. The child tax credit, which was issued initially as temporary relief amid the pandemic, kept 3.7m kids out of poverty in December. But families have been left in limbo after the payments expired, and Joe Manchin killed hopes of making them a permanent resource for struggling parents.
“I don’t believe the polls,” Biden said at the press conference, echoing an infamous refrain from his predecessor.
Asked by a reporter how to win over moderates and independents who backed him in 2020, but have wavered in their support in recent polls. Biden’s approval rating has plunged in recent months. A Gallup poll found released today 40% of US. adults approve of the job he is doing.
His average approval rating has sat at about 42% in recent months. A Quinnipiac poll released last week found his approval rating was as low as 33%, though the White House dismissed it as an outlier.
A defensive Biden today told reporters he’s faced some of the biggest challenges any US president has faced. “I’m not complaining,” he said.
At his press conference to mark one year in office, Joe Biden outlined some of the changes he plans to make for his second year.
The president said he would leave the White House more to communicate his message to the American people, which has been difficult because of coronavirus-related restrictions.
He also said he would consult more with outside experts and be “deeply involved” in the midterm elections, as Democrats seek to defend their narrow majorities in the House and Senate.
Making his case in defense of the filibuster, Joe Manchin said the Senate should stay on voting rights and have an extended debate on the topic until it could reach some kind of bipartisan consensus.
“We don’t have to change the rules to make the case to the American people about voting rights,” Manchin said in his Senate floor speech moments ago.
“We could have kept voting rights as pending business for the Senate. Today, a week, a month from now. This is important. Let’s work it out. Let’s stay here and go at it.”
Such a proposal ignores the reality that nearly all of the Republican caucus has expressed no interest in negotiating over the specific policies in the Democratic bills. Manchin reportedly spent weeks trying to find GOP support for the measures and was unable to find any.
Just one Republican, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted in support of the proposal to restore a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.
Republicans have railed against the voting rights bill in broad terms, saying that it is federal overreach. The US constitution explicitly authorizes Congress to set rules for federal elections.
Updated
Over at Joe Biden’s press conference, a reporter asked the president whether he is pleased with the performance of Kamala Harris, who is leading the administration’s work on voting rights.
The reporter also asked Biden whether he still expects Harris to be his running mate if he seeks reelection in 2024, as he has said he plans to do.
“Yes and yes,” Biden replied. “She’s going to be my running mate, number one. And number two, I did put her in charge, and I think she’s doing a good job.”
So far, Democrats have failed to pass a voting rights bill, as Senate Republicans have repeatedly used the filibuster to block their proposals.
Manchin doubles down on opposition to filibuster reform
As Joe Biden took questions from reporters at his press conference, Joe Manchin delivered a Senate floor speech on voting rights and filibuster reform.
Manchin dug in on his support for the filibuster, making it clear he would not vote to change the procedure to support voting rights reform.
Getting rid of the rule, Manchin said, would be “perilous” for the Senate and the US.
Sen. Joe Manchin criticizes fellow Democrats for wanting to use the “nuclear option to override a rule that we have used ourselves but now seem to find unacceptable.” https://t.co/LGjIxl41LW pic.twitter.com/IEpAbqV3sf
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 19, 2022
“I will not vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster. The filibuster plays an important role in protecting our democracy from the transitory passions of the majority and respecting the input of the minority in the Senate,” Manchin said.
“For those who believe bipartisanship is impossible, we have proven them wrong. Ending the filibuster would be the easy way out. I cannot support such a perilous course for this nation when elected leaders are sent to Washington to unite our country by putting politics and party aside.”
Manchin’s speech came hours before Democrats were set to vote on sweeping voting rights legislation that is doomed to fail because Republicans are unified in their opposition to the measure, denying it the 60 votes needed to move forward.
Manchin and fellow Democrat Kyrsten Sinema have been stalwart in their refusal to make changes to the filibuster, which Democrats say Republicans have weaponized as a tool of obstruction in recent years.
A reporter asked Joe Biden about Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell’s comment today that the midterm elections will be a referendum on Democrats’ performance since taking control of the White House and Congress.
“I actually like Mitch McConnell. We like one another. But he has one straightforward objective: make sure that there’s nothing I do that makes me look good, in his mind, with the public at large,” Biden said.
“And that’s okay. I’m a big boy. I’ve been here before.”
Joe Biden confirmed the Build Back Better Act will likely have to be separated into multiple bills in order to get some of its components passed.
“It’s clear to me that we’re going to have to probably break it up,” the president said.
Biden noted that Joe Manchin, who announced his opposition to the spending package last month, supports some of the bill’s key provisions, such as establishing universal access to free prekindergarten.
“I think we can break the package up, get as much as we can now and come back and fight for the rest later,” Biden said.
Joe Biden was asked whether he believes the threatened sanctions against Russia will be enough to prevent Vladimir Putin from approving an invasion of Ukraine, when such economic measures have not proven effective with the Russian president in the past.
“He’s never seen sanctions like the ones I’ve promised will be imposed if he moves,” the president replied.
Biden noted he has had “frank discussions” with Putin in recent weeks, as fears have intensified over a potential invasion of Ukraine.
The US president said that, if Putin moves forward with a full-scale invasion, it will be a “disaster” for the Russian economy.
“Russia will be held accountable if it invades,” Biden said.
Biden expresses confidence in passing 'big chunks' of Build Back Better
A reporter asked Joe Biden whether he needed to be more realistic in his legislative goals and and scale down his priorities in order to get something passed.
The president said he did not believe he needed to scale down his goals, arguing his agenda is largely popular with the American people.
“We just have to make the case of what we’re for and what the other team’s not for,” Biden said, underscoring the need for Democrats to contrast their priorities with those of Republicans.
However, in response to a follow-up question, Biden seemed to acknowledge that the Build Back Better Act may need to be broken up into several pieces to get passed.
“I’m confident we can get pieces, big chunks of the Build Back Better law signed into law,” Biden said.
Joe Manchin announced last month that he would not support the $1.75tn spending package, which represents the centerpiece of Biden’s economic agenda.
But the president and Democratic congressional leaders have indicated they are not giving up on the proposal.
Biden: 'I didn't overpromise. I have probably outperformed'
Joe Biden is now taking questions from reporters, after delivering some prepared remarks about the coronavirus pandemic and the US economy.
A journalist asked the president whether he believes he promised too much to voters, considering Democrats’ failure to pass a voting rights bill or the Build Back Better Act since he took office.
“I didn’t overpromise. I have probably outperformed what anybody thought would happen,” Biden replied.
The president insisted his administration had made “enormous progress” over the past year, but he acknowledged that the year had not seen much bipartisanship.
Condemning the obstructionist tactics of the opposing party, Biden said he had not succeeded in convincing “my Republican friends to get in the game”.
Updated
Joe Biden said coronavirus will not disappear anytime soon, but he expressed confidence that the situation in the US will continue to improve in the months ahead.
President Biden: "COVID-19 is not going to give up and it's not gonna go away immediately. But I'm not going to give up and accept things as they are now. Some people may call what's happening now the 'new normal.' I call it a job not yet finished. It will get better." pic.twitter.com/4MqDerL3H4
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 19, 2022
“I’m not going to give up and accept things as they are now. Some people may call what’s happening now the ‘new normal.’ I call it a job not yet finished,” Biden said.
“It will get better. We’re moving toward a time when Covid-19 won’t disrupt our daily lives, where Covid-19 won’t be a crisis but something to protect against and a threat. Look, we’re not there yet, but we will get there.”
Biden’s remarks come as the Omicron variant causes a surge in cases of coronavirus in the US, putting more pressure on hospitals and resulting in high demand for tests.
While touting the successes of his first year in office, Joe Biden acknowledged that many Americans remain unhappy with the state of the nation.
“For all this progress, I know there’s a lot of frustration and fatigue in this country. And we know why: Covid-19,” Biden said.
The president said he understood Americans are tired nearly two years into the pandemic, but he emphasized the US now has the tools to save lives and keep the economy open -- vaccines, tests and masks.
Nodding to criticism that the White House should have made coronavirus tests more widely available sooner, Biden said, “Should we have done more testing earlier? Yes. But we’re doing more now.”
Biden holds press conference to mark one year in office
Joe Biden has now appeared at the podium to kick off his press conference, which comes on the eve of the one-year anniversary of his inauguration.
“It’s been a year of challenges, but it’s also been a year of enormous progress,” the president said.
Biden touted his administration’s success in boosting coronavirus vaccination rates and lowering the US unemployment rate, despite widespread criticism of Democrats’ failure to pass a voting rights bill or their Build Back Better Act.
Biden is expected to deliver prepared remarks for about 10 minutes before taking questions from reporters. Stay tuned.
Manchin's filibuster speech set to clash with Biden's press conference
Joe Manchin will deliver his Senate floor speech on voting rights and filibuster reform at 4.30pm ET, his office just confirmed in a statement.
Given that timing, it is quite likely that Manchin will be speaking as Joe Biden holds his press conference, which is scheduled to begin at 4pm ET.
So while Biden is trying to tout the successes of his first year in office, Manchin will simultaneously be taking the podium on the Senate floor and likely eliminating any hope of passing voting rights legislation in the near future.
It should be an eventful afternoon, to say the least. Stay tuned.
Tim Scott, a Republican of South Carolina, criticized Joe Biden for comparing the voting restrictions enacted in the past year to the racist policies of the Jim Crow era.
Scott, the only Black Republican member of the Senate, said the issue of voting rights is “really important to all Americans but specifically important to Americans from the Deep South who happen to look like me”.
“As I listened to the president talk about the importance of stopping what he characterized as ‘Jim Crow 2.0’, I felt frustration and irritation rising in my soul,” Scott said. “I am so thankful, thankful that we are not living in those days.”
Sen. @CoryBooker: "Don't lecture me about Jim Crow. I know this is not 1965. That's what makes me so outraged. It's 2022. And they're blatantly removing polling places from the counties where Blacks and Latinos are overrepresented. I'm not making that up. That is a fact." pic.twitter.com/JtwxQMZtpE
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 19, 2022
After Scott spoke, Cory Booker, another one of the three Black members of the Senate, stepped up to the podium to denounce the voting restrictions and their disproportionate impact on minority voters.
“Don’t lecture me about Jim Crow. I know this is not 1965. That’s what makes me so outraged. It’s 2022,” said Booker, a Democrat of New Jersey.
“And they’re blatantly removing more polling places from the counties where Blacks and Latinos are overrepresented. I’m not making that up. That is a fact.”
The Senate debate over voting rights and filibuster reform has been going on for hours now, and the chamber may not wrap up its work today until 9pm or 10pm ET, per PBS NewsHour.
For Senate watchers, consensus in talking with Dem senators and Dem leadership sources is that tonight is heading toward a 9p/10p end time.
— Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews) January 19, 2022
(As always it's fluid, who knows, etc.)
The Senate debate over Democrats’ voting rights bill and their suggested changes to the filibuster continues, with Republicans denouncing their colleagues’ proposals.
Thom Tillis, a Republican of North Carolina, pledged that he would leave the Senate if his party ever amended the filibuster -- or rather the legislative filibuster, as Republicans already eliminated the filibuster for supreme court nominees.
.@SenThomTillis: "The day that Republicans change the rules for the filibuster is the day I resign from the Senate." pic.twitter.com/f38byD2vqE
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 19, 2022
“The day that Republicans change the rues for the filibuster is the day I resign from the Senate,” Tillis said.
“And I believe that I have a number of members on my side of the aisle that would never do it. So you don’t have to worry about the argument, ‘If you don’t change it now, they’ll just change it when they hit the trifecta.’ It’s not going to happen.”
It will be interesting to see if those comments ever come back to haunt Tillis.
Joe Biden held a virtual meeting today with some of the senators who traveled to Ukraine over the weekend to meet with the country’s president and discuss concerns over a potential Russian invasion.
“President Biden and the senators exchanged views on the best ways the United States can continue to work closely with our allies and partners in support of Ukraine, including both ongoing diplomacy to try to resolve the current crisis and deterrence measures,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.
“President Biden commended the strong history of support for Ukraine from both sides of the aisle, and agreed to keep working closely with Congress as the Administration prepares to impose significant consequences in response to further Russian aggression against Ukraine.”
Secretary of state Antony Blinken is also in Ukraine today, meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy before traveling to Geneva for talks with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, on Friday.
Blinken has warned that Russia could take “further aggressive action” against Ukraine “at any moment,” the Guardian’s Luke Harding and Andrew Roth report:
The US Supreme Court has issued a very unusual statement. Not about any of the high-stakes cases the bench is considering, however, but about coronavirus, masks - the wearing of - and a report of a disagreement between liberal-leaning Sonia Sotomayor and conservative-leaning Neil Gorsuch over what can be a life-or-death issue.
The Associated Press elucidates:
Two Supreme Court justices say a media report that they were at odds over the wearing of masks in court during the recent surge in coronavirus cases is false.
The court on Wednesday issued an unusual three-sentence statement from Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch. It read: “Reporting that Justice Sotomayor asked Justice Gorsuch to wear a mask surprised us. It is false. While we may sometimes disagree about the law, we are warm colleagues and friends.”
The statement came after NPR’s longtime Supreme Court correspondent Nina Totenberg reported Tuesday on an alleged conflict between the two, who normally sit next to each other during arguments at the high court.
Sotomayor, who has diabetes, has been attending arguments remotely from her chambers this month during the surge of the coronavirus’ omicron variant. Her colleagues, with the exception of Gorsuch, have been wearing masks this month while hearing arguments in the courtroom.,
Totenberg reported that unidentified court sources said “Sotomayor did not feel safe in close proximity to people who were unmasked” and that “Chief Justice John Roberts, understanding that, in some form asked the other justices to mask up.” She did not elaborate.
Gorsuch’s decision not to wear a mask “has also meant that Sotomayor has not attended the justices’ weekly conference in person, joining instead by telephone,” Totenberg reported.
The court had no comment beyond the statement.
Sotomayor is an appointee of former President Barack Obama while Gorsuch was appointed by former President Donald Trump. Totenberg did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment from The Associated Press.
Following NPR’s story, CNN also reported that “a source familiar with the situation” said Sotomayor didn’t “feel comfortable sitting on the bench near colleagues who are not masked.” Neither NPR’s story nor CNN’s story said Sotomayor had directly asked Gorsuch to wear a mask. The justices’ statement did not say what reporting it was referencing.
A long-contested statue of Theodore Roosevelt was dismantled earlier today as part of the process to remove it from its position outside the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where it has stood since 1940.
The large equestrian statue of the former US president was blighted by its being accompanied by sculptures of a Native American man and an African man, flanking Roosevelt, on foot and slightly behind him, in contrast to his sitting high on his horse.
Removal of the statue was suggested by the museum and backed by the city authorities in the summer of 2020, at the time of the biggest nationwide uprising for racial justice and equity since the civil rights movement, following the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
The statue has been protested for decades with critics saying it, in the words of the New York Times, “symbolized the painful legacy of museums upholding images of colonialism and racism in their exhibitions.....
“Designed by the American sculptor James Earle Fraser in 1939, [the statue] was one of four memorials that a city commission had reconsidered in 2017, ultimately deciding in a split decision to leave it in place and add context. Its 2019 exhibition, “Addressing the Statue,” discussed the figures walking beside Roosevelt and Roosevelt’s complex legacy, which included overt racism in his later years.”
Reuters adds:
The museum on its website said it was proud of its long association with the Roosevelt family, adding: “At the same time, the statue itself communicates a racial hierarchy the Museum and members of the public have long found disturbing.”
Roosevelt, who was president from 1901 to 1909, was known for his exuberant and daring manner. He implemented antitrust and conservationist reforms, though critics said he took an interventionist approach to foreign policy, including projecting U.S. naval power around the world.
Updated
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Bernie Sanders warned he may support primary challengers against Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, the two holdouts in Senate Democrats’ debate over changing the filibuster to pass a voting rights bill. 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.
- Manchin is set to deliver a Senate floor speech this afternoon outlining his position on voting rights and filibuster reform. The Senate will hold a procedural vote later today on Democrats’ voting rights bill, and the vote is expected to fail because of a Republican filibuster.
- Joe Biden will hold a press conference today as he marks one year in office. The president will likely face tough questions about his party’s failure to pass a voting rights bill or the Build Back Better Act.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Lisa Murkowski, the only Senate Republican who voted to advance the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act last year, signaled opposition to Democrats’ latest proposal.
The Senate is holding a debate as the chamber prepares for a procedural vote on Democrats’ newest voting rights bill, which combines elements of the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
In her floor speech moments ago, Murkowski reiterated her commitment to protecting voting rights but said she did not believe this bill sufficiently covered states’ rights to set their own election laws.
"We need to address this... I want to protect voting rights," Murkowski says on the floor.
— Julie Tsirkin (@JulieNBCNews) January 19, 2022
But she adds that she is concerned the voting rights bills "deprive states of the flexibility to design and implement their own laws, as the constitution provides." https://t.co/awgTGpUEuW
Over on Capitol Hill, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell lamented the “sad spectacle” of Democrats trying to change the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation.
McConnell accused majority leader Chuck Schumer of launching a “direct assault on the core identity of the Senate” by attempting to amend the filibuster, which Republicans have repeatedly used to block Democrats’ voting rights bills.
“Our colleague from New York will try to kill the character of the institution he is supposed to protect and to serve,” McConnell said.
“The legislative filibuster is a central Senate tradition. It is the indispensable feature of our institution. It makes the Senate serve its founding purpose: forging compromise, cooling passions and ensuring new laws earn broad support from a cross-section of our country.”
Of course, bipartisan compromise has become increasingly rare in Washington, and using the filibuster to block the opposing party’s bills is now considered standard practice in the Senate.
Later today, Joe Biden will hold the 10th press conference of his presidency, far fewer than any of his recent predecessors during their first year in office.
In a sharp shift from Donald Trump, Biden has said journalists are “indispensable to the functioning of democracy”, which the president has repeatedly warned is under threat at home and abroad. Yet press access to the president has been limited.
Biden has held just nine formal news conferences during his first year, according to research compiled by Martha Joynt Kumar, director of the White House Transition Project. Trump had held 22 and Barack Obama 27 at the same point in their presidencies.
Only Ronald Reagan, whose public appearances were scaled back following an assassination attempt in March 1981, held fewer press conferences during his first year. But Reagan did 59 interviews that year, compared with Biden, who has only done 22.
Trump, who labeled the media the “enemy of the American people” and once praised a congressman who assaulted a reporter, did 92 interviews during his first year.
Biden does field questions more frequently than his predecessors, but takes fewer of them, according to Kumar’s tally. These impromptu exchanges with reporters often follow scheduled remarks or public appearances.
“For the president, it is a question of how do you use your time?” Kumar said. “And for Biden, he has wanted to use his time negotiating privately on his policies.”
Read the Guardian’s full report:
Biden to hold press conference amid struggles to pass voting rights bill
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.
This progress on vaccinations is so important, especially in light of Omicron, because we know the unvaccinated are 17x more likely to be hospitalized and 20x more likely to die than those who’ve been vaccinated.
— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) January 18, 2022
There's still more work to do, but this progress is undeniable. https://t.co/3Zd7WKTc2x
“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.
Updated
Worth noting: most Senate Democrats are actually sitting in the chamber to listen to the debate over their voting rights bill, per CNN.
In a rare move, most Senate Democrats are at their desks in the chamber as the debate over voting rights unfolds. I spotted both Sinema and Manchin as well who are opposed to rules change Schumer will push tonight.
— Lauren Fox (@FoxReports) January 19, 2022
On GOP side, McConnell, Blunt, Portman and Tillis spotted.
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.
Sen. Schumer knocks Republicans on voting rights during filibuster showdown: “Just as Donald Trump has his 'big lie,' Leader McConnell now has his: ‘States are not engaging in trying to suppress voters whatsoever.’” https://t.co/6AqGNTnvGd pic.twitter.com/2OVa4ggi8f
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 19, 2022
“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.
Updated
Manchin to deliver floor speech on voting rights and filibuster reform
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.”
Manchin told me he’s planning on speaking on the floor this afternoon about his views on rules changes. “I would like to see us stay on the bill,” he said of voting rights bill. He doesn’t want see Schumer move to try to cut off debate.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 19, 2022
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.
Kelly backs rule changes to get voting rights bill passed
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.”
If NASA functioned like the United States Senate, they would never get the rocket off the launchpad.
— Senator Mark Kelly (@SenMarkKelly) January 19, 2022
Read my full statement about why I support passing campaign finance and voting rights reforms with a majority vote: https://t.co/0w2zTIxOTX pic.twitter.com/nUUZ0BdWtF
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.
Updated
Republican redistricting weakens influence of minority voters, report finds
Republicans are severely distorting district lines to their advantage and weakening the influence of minority voters as they draw new district lines across the country, according to a new report by the Brennan Center for Justice.
The report, which examines the state of play of the ongoing decennial redistricting cycle, notes that Republicans are shielding their efforts to dismantle minority districts by arguing that the new lines are based on partisanship.
While racial discrimination in redistricting is illegal, the US supreme court said in 2019 that discrimination based on partisanship was acceptable.
Many of the voter maps coming out of the 2021-22 redistricting cycle entrench racial discrimination and partisan gerrymanders. The Freedom to Vote: John Lewis Act offers critical protections that would make a difference in time for the midterms. https://t.co/ZWL0STc5JP
— Brennan Center (@BrennanCenter) January 19, 2022
“This cycle is seeing unprecedented efforts to undermine the political power of Black, Latino, Asian, and Native communities through redistricting, especially in southern states that, for the first time in more than half a century, are no longer covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act,” the report says.
“Some of the most aggressive attacks on minority power are coming in the suburbs of southern states like Texas and Georgia. There, Republicans have surgically dismantled rapidly diversifying districts where communities of color have enjoyed increasing electoral success in recent years,” it adds.
The report also notes that Republicans, who have complete control over the drawing of 187 of the US House’s 435 districts, are making districts much less competitive.
Donald Trump won 54 districts by 15 or more points in states where the GOP controls redistricting under old maps. Under the new plan, that number increases to 70.
The redistricting cycle is still ongoing. New York, Tennessee, and Missouri are still among the states where lawmakers are drawing new maps.
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.
An update from our President @LaphonzaB on voting rights pic.twitter.com/flmU4y8qNw
— EMILY's List (@emilyslist) January 18, 2022
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.”
Sanders suggests he may back primary challenges to Sinema and Manchin
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.
