By The FirstTime to switch up strategies, Chuck.
According to reports from The Hill, Democratic leadership is putting the full-court press on Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) in hopes they can secure the votes to make changes to the legislative filibuster.
But it ain’t looking good in this 50/50 Senate.
“Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer’s decision to force a vote on changes to the rules by Jan. 17 puts Democrats on a high-profile collision course with their own colleagues absent an agreement, an effort that the New York Democrat acknowledges is an ‘uphill fight,’” the Hill reports.
“Manchin has said all along that he wants to deal with Republicans and we have all been very patient,” Schumer told reporters. “I believe he knows that we will not get any Republican cooperation.”
Schumer tells the press he’s had “serious discussions” with Manchin over the rule change, but even if Manchin comes around, they’ll still have Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) to deal with —and she’s not fond of the rule change either.
Schumer’s number 2, Dick Durbin (D-IL) was asked about Democrats’ chances of getting both Manchin and Sinema to play ball; Durbin says you never know.
“You’ll never know until you have the vote, frankly, and I hope that they will be on board,” Durbin said. “We’ve spent month after month after month with both of them. … We’re trying to convince both of them, give us a fair chance to deal with voting rights.”
Schumer says the voting rights bill is too important to be tanked by just two hold-out Senators.
“The bottom line is this: they must allow us to pass these two vital pieces of legislation, even if not a single Republican joins us,” he added.
Actually, Chuck —they musn’t allow you to do anything.