- A group of Democratic senators huddled with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema Tuesday night
- Senators met with Manchin Wednesday morning
- It is the same pair of centrists who stalled Biden’s Build Back Better for months
- Schumer said senators are warning Manchin state election changes could doom them
- ‘They’re saying things like I’ll lose my election,’ Schumer told MSNBC
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer says fellow Democrats are telling Sen. Joe Manchin their own seats and party majority are at risk if the Senate doesn’t change its filibuster rules to counter state voting restrictions.
Schumer revealed the appeals to party and self interest Wednesday hours after a group of nine senators met with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) in an effort to get her behind changes to the filibuster. Both have been holding out and standing by their opposition to ending it.
‘This is too important to just concede,’ Schumer told MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe.’
‘We are working there are constant meetings and not just among the few senators, but just about every senator – every single one of the 50 [other than Manchin and Sinema] is talking individually to Joe Manchin to Kyrsten Sinema – and they’re saying things like: “I’ll lose my election if the legislature is allowed to do this in my state.”
Schumer continued: ‘We lose our majority – but more importantly, we’ll lose our democracy. And those speakers yesterday that I mentioned were very powerful,’ he said.
Adding muscle to the effort, President Joe Biden plans to head to the Capitol Thursday to meet with senators and push changes to the filibuster. Biden on Tuesday in Atlanta called for changes to the Senate rules – but wasn’t specific about how.
‘Today I’m making it clear: To protect our democracy, I support changing the Senate rules, whichever way they need to be changed to prevent a minority of senators from blocking action on voting rights,’ Biden said.