Thursday on CNN’s Situation Room, Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal said she’s pleased that President Joe Biden has “moved” on the filibuster and that he “didn’t close the door to something more.”
“Well, he’s moved, and we’re happy to see that,” Jayapal said. “You know, the Progressive Caucus, and I’m leading a letter right now with moderates and progressives around reforming or eliminating the filibuster. Because it’s very clear to us that it is a relic and that it is going to block any progress on anything that we committed to voters that we would deliver.”
Just for clarification: Democrats classify as a “relic” anything that stands in the way of them seizing more power. They were completely in favor of the filibuster when they used it themselves in the past, even as recently as against former President Trump. Now that it doesn’t serve their immediate purposes, it’s a “relic.”
“If you might remember, just a month or two ago, [Biden] said he didn’t believe in any filibuster reform,” she continued. “Today, he’s saying he believes in reforming a talking filibuster. But he also didn’t close the door to something more, and I thought that was significant as well.
“It’s going to take a little bit of time, I think, just from a practical perspective, to get to the place where all the Democrats are ready to do this and to really make the arguments to everybody that no progress is possible and we cannot go back to voters and say, you know what, you gave us the House, the Senate, and the White House, but because of some arcane procedure, we couldn’t deliver,” Jayapal added.
Also for clarification: the “voters” didn’t give Democrats the House, Senate, and the White House — at least not the legal voters.