The Senate on Wednesday night failed to change the filibuster rule to allow voting rights legislation to pass with a simple majority.
The rule change would have required 51 votes to pass but did not have the support of all Democrats, whose leader had pushed for it. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., joined all Republicans in opposing the change.
President Joe Biden said in a statement following the defeat:"I am profoundly disappointed that the Senate has failed to stand up for our democracy. I am disappointed -- but I am not deterred. We will continue to advance necessary legislation and push for Senate procedural changes that will protect the fundamental right to vote."
"Jan. 6 happened, but here's the thing, Jan. 5 also happened. Georgia, a state in the old confederacy, sent a Black man and a Jewish man to the Senate in one fell swoop," he said."Our nation has always had a complicated history, and I submit to you that here's where we are -- we're swinging from a moral dilemma. We are caught somewhere between Jan. 5 and Jan. 6. Between our hopes and our fears. Between bigotry and beloved community.
"Just as Donald Trump has his"big lie," Mitch McConnell now has his: States are not engaging in trying to suppress voters whatsoever," Schumer said.
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