Given her recent Twitter activity, Vice President Kamala Harris may not understand the definition of “majority”.
Lately, the Biden administration has ramped up pressure to pass its sweeping federal voting rights legislation package. However, Harris and others have grown increasingly frustrated that the Senate’s unique rules have effectively blocked any potential legislative victory.
The Senate requires a simple majority – 51 votes, to pass the legislation after the Senate closes debate. But, to close debate, Senate rules require 60 votes. Thus, this threshold, which we know as the filibuster, is the de facto requirement for passing bills. The Senate can carve out exceptions, as they did with the most recent vote on the debt ceiling.
However, two Democrats, Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kirsten Sinema (D-AZ) have openly stated their opposition to “nuking” the filibuster. Thus, unless they get Manchin and Sinema in line, the Harris’s hopes of passing this key legislative package is undone.
With regards to the filibuster, Harris posted this tweet on January 11:
Many responded that 50 Republican Senators plus 2 Democrat Senators equals a Senate majority.
Others reminded Harris and her supporters that the filibuster is certainly constitutional.
Our Take…
After all this, which narrative does Vice President Harris wish us to use? Is she acting willfully ignorant of the Constitution? Or, is she actually this dumb? Is she pretending not to understand that a majority of the Senate is against “nuking” the filibuster? Or, is she actually this dumb?
Frankly, based on her past buffoonery, we’re not sure that we should be giving her the benefit of the doubt!
But, is this push sincere? Back when then-Senator Harris was in the Senate minority, she had no problem with the filibuster:
Harris also signed a bipartisan pledge in 2017 urging Senate leadership “to preserve the 60 vote threshold for legislation. ” Now that the Democrats hold a razor thin majority in the Senate, Harris’s hypocrisy is all the more evident.
We don’t know what exactly Vice President Harris knows. But, Harris should know that her agenda is in danger, thanks to a bipartisan majority of Senators.
