Biden says he supports reforming filibuster
17 March 2021
President Biden told ABC News Tuesday he supports reforming the Senate's filibuster rule to require lawmakers to talk on the Senate floor to delay a bill’s passage.
Why it matters: It's the first time the president has publicly supported action on the rule after the White House maintained for several weeks that he opposed eliminating the filibuster altogether.
Context: Progressives have pressured Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to do away with the chamber's long-standing 60-vote threshold to pass major legislation on issues including climate change and voting rights.
- Eliminating the filibuster would significantly limit the minority party's power, which uses the procedural rule to delay or block legislative action it opposes.
What they're saying: Asked if he would ultimately have to choose between preserving the filibuster and advancing his administration's agenda, Biden said: "I don't think that you have to eliminate the filibuster — you have to do it what it used to be when I first got to the Senate back in the old days."
- "You had to stand up and command the floor, you had to keep talking," Biden said, adding that he would support making that a requirement.
- "That's what it was supposed to be. It's getting to the point where, you know, democracy is having a hard time functioning,"
The big picture: Biden is advocating for the same reform as Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), who told "Axios on HBO" that he supports "a little bit of pain" for senators who want to filibuster and opposes a simple majority in the chamber.
- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) again warned Democrats on Tuesday that eliminating the legislative filibuster would "break the Senate" and turn the chamber into a "100-car pileup" where chaos reigns.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.