Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) is urging people to “think a couple years down the road” when considering whether or not to eliminate the filibuster.
During an appearance on ABC’s “The View” on Friday, Sinema said that the filibuster is “neither negative or positive,” but could be used in the future to block an “attempt to get rid of things that are very important to me personally.”
Co-host Joy Behar said she believes voting rights are “too crucial to just say, ‘Well we need to keep it for when we need it.'”
She continued, “It’s too important because if everyone in the country is not able to vote, you don’t really have a country. Not only won’t you have the filibuster, you won’t have a country. So for me, it seems like it’s an emergency right now that we get rid of the filibuster even though we might pay down the road. But if we don’t have voting rights, what do we got? Nothing.”
Sinema responded by noting that she has voted to advance voting rights legislation in the past.
She continued, “But if you eliminate the filibuster to pass that piece of legislation, then in four years or anytime when the other party gains control, without the filibuster in place all of those voting rights protections could be easily wiped out with a simple majority vote. And you could have a nationwide ban on mail-in voting. You could have requirements for voter ID at every level of government for every election throughout the country.”
“Think a couple years down the road on what it looks like if you remove this tool, this protection for the minority, what happens when you’re the minority and that tool is no longer there to protect your rights,” she added.
Finally, she said, “Eliminating this tool would result in very negative restrictions on voting rights in the future.”
Watch the video below:
.@SenatorSinema defends her support of the filibuster on @TheView: “Think a couple years down the road on what it looks like if you remove this tool, this protection for the minority, what happens when you're the minority and that tool is no longer there to protect your rights.” pic.twitter.com/5iSecalbJZ
— The View (@TheView) August 6, 2021
The filibuster is a procedural hurdle in the Senate that is used to delay or block legislation and requires 60 votes to overcome.
The Senate is currently divided 50-50 which means Democrats would need 10 Republicans to vote with them to overcome a filibuster and advance legislation.
In June, Senate Republicans used the filibuster to block Democrats sweeping voting rights bill.
Sinema has previously said she opposes getting of the filibuster.
