The Point: Joe Biden (still) doesn't want to get rid of the filibuster

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July 22, 2021 | by Chris Cillizza and Lauren Dezenski

Joe Biden (still) doesn't want to get rid of the filibuster

President Joe Biden called the ongoing efforts in Republican state legislatures to pass restrictive voting legislation "Jim Crow on steroids" during a CNN town hall in Cincinnati on Wednesday night.

Moments later, pressed by CNN's Don Lemon on whether the filibuster should be abolished in order to pass a broad voting rights bill currently stuck in the Senate, Biden demurred.

"There's no reason to protect [the filibuster] other than you're going to throw the entire Congress into chaos and nothing will get done," the President told Lemon. "Nothing at all will get done. And there's a lot at stake."

Which will piss off a whole lot of liberals.

Biden has been consistent in his position -- opposed to eliminating the filibuster, interested in the so-called "talking filibuster" -- although some on the left had hoped that the GOP's block of an independent commission to examine the January 6 US Capitol riot as well as the continued unwillingness by Senate Republicans to consider the "For The People" Act would change his mind.

That hope appears to be an empty one. In fact, Biden seemed, at least during a CNN-sponsored town hall on Wednesday night, to cast the focus on the filibuster as nothing more than a Republican-created distraction.

"I'm trying to bring the country together," Biden insisted. "And I don't want the debate to only be about whether or not we have a filibuster or exceptions to the filibuster or going back to the way the filibuster had to be used before."

That will sound, to many liberals, like a hopelessly naive view of the political world. Biden's belief that the Trump fever will, at some point, break is cause for eyerolls and exasperated sighs within the base of the Democratic Party.

(Sidebar: Both Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have said they oppose jettisoning the filibuster, meaning that even if Biden favored doing so, Democrats couldn't make it happen.)

Their concerns are compounded by the history of midterm elections for the party in power; if history holds, Democrats will almost certainly lose the House majority and could well lose control of the Senate as well -- at which point Biden's ability to get anything done in his final two years will be greatly constrained.

Whether he's right or wrong on the filibuster, Biden isn't changing his mind, however. He made that abundantly clear on Wednesday night.

The Point: The numbers in the Senate aren't there. Biden opposes changing it. The filibuster is here to stay. (For now.)

-- Chris

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"If we're having the same conversations next week, then it's dead."

-- GOP Sen. Tim Scott on the ongoing bipartisan police reform bill negotiations, who warned if they haven't made progress by next week, the chances of passage are low.

MEANWHILE, IN ARIZONA

Arizona's Colorado River Indian Tribes have unique access to water from the Colorado River, and want to now share that water to help nearby drought-ridden communities.

With Congress' OK, tribal leaders want to put some of that water on the market by leasing it out, according to USA Today, and estimate those water leases could help Arizona's water shortages caused by drought and climate change.

The Colorado River Indian Tribes nation is the largest single user of the Colorado River's water in Arizona, according to USA Today. Thanks to a decades-old water rights treaty, it has the right to divert 662,000 acre-feet per year, more than double the amount of water diverted for the state of Nevada.

"We did this as a tribe because we wanted to claim our own destiny with our land and our water," Chairman Dennis Patch said during a virtual meeting on the proposal earlier this month. "Our water is critical to the state's water security as the drought continues and possibly worsens."

If the measure passes Congress, it could clear a path for other tribal governments along the river to seek authorization for similar water deals.

THURSDAY'S TOP TWEETS

1. Adam Kinzinger might be on the 1/6 committee?

2. Say it ain't so, Melania

3. Get the 💉

4. Ronny Jackson with the self-own!

5. Post-Trump hasn't been great for conservative websites

6. Hey have you seen the second "Pirates of the Caribbean?"

CHRIS' GOOD READS

Even at the time, I remember thinking that the FBI's investigation into sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh felt decidedly cursory. Turns out that was overstating how in-depth the investigation went, according to The New York Times.

I remember when Ohio was not a battleground state at the presidential level, it was the battleground state at the presidential level. The Buckeye State has been slipping away from Democrats ever since. Robert Alexander's piece in USA Today argues that 2022 is a now-or-never moment for Democrats.

There's a good piece on 538 that tries to explain why Joe Biden's approval rating has barely moved since he took office.

I love all content about baseball's crackdown on the sticky stuff. This Inside Hook article looks at which pitchers have been most affected by it.

Skateboarding is not a crime. And this Washington Post visualization on skater Heimana Reynolds is breathtaking.

MUSICAL INTERLUDE

Sophia Allison is Soccer Mommy. Her 2020 album "Color Theory" was one of my favorites of the year. She's started to put out new music -- "rom com 2004" is the new single -- which is GREAT news.

-- Chris

'WOKE' FOR BROKE?

Democrats' midterm prospects could be disrupted by a new front of the culture war within their own party: the rise of "woke culture" on the far left.

In the latest episode of The Point, Chris explains how Democrats need to navigate this self-made minefield and push back on Republicans' anti-woke messaging if they want to score big wins in 2022.

Stick with The Point on YouTube and subscribe!

ONE DIFFICULT THING

Eighteen states have enacted 30 new laws that make it harder to vote, according to a new tally by the liberal-leaning Brennan Center for Justice that tracks state activity through July 14.

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