The world in which White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki lives is an elite one, as exhibited in her remarks during an appearance on The View Friday. When asked about the frustration that Democrats feel over the Biden administration’s inability to get the nationalization of elections passed in the Senate, Jen said everyone should just drink a margarita or maybe do some kickboxing. Whatever makes them feel better over the weekend and then get back to fighting on Monday.
She said the quiet part out loud – this is an administration that works like theirs are 9-5 jobs, not 24/7. Psaki sounds like a wine mom, leaving the kids with a nanny so she can grab a spa day when her stress levels go up. Jen thinks everyone should just give themselves a little me time and everything will be fine. If only that was how the real world works. The people that are ticked off about the botched power grab by Democrats in Congress to nationalize elections and likely guarantee a permanent Democrat majority are not going to be pacified by a margarita. Everyone in the Biden administration is tone-deaf.
After the Senate failed to pass voting rights legislation this week, @PressSec Jen Psaki tells #TheView that the path forward is to "keep fighting."
"We also need to make sure people are educated in states across the country about what their rights are." https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA pic.twitter.com/9B9PucBOxJ
— The View (@TheView) January 22, 2022
You heard her, just take the weekend off, regroup, and come back Monday in fight mode.
“This is very frustrating, it is infuriating, that some people in the Senate, including the entire Republican caucus, won’t support peoples’ fundamental rights. It is also frustrating that when we talk about voter protections, just something that everybody should have the right to, some people are putting process ahead of that fundamental protection,” Psaki said. “So we have got to keep at it, including changing the rules to make sure there is a path forward to move voting rights legislation on a federal level.”
“My advice to everyone out there who’s frustrated, sad, angry, pissed off, feel those emotions, go to a kickboxing class, have a margarita, do whatever you need to do this weekend, and then wake up on Monday and keep fighting.”
The problem with moving the voting rights bill through the Senate wasn’t over the bill itself, it was over process. Two Democrat senators are unwilling to nuke the filibuster in order to pass the legislation. They both have come out in favor of the legislation. Republicans will never pass it as it is written because it is porked up with lots of things like ballot harvesting and taking away local control of elections. It does away with voter id requirements though a majority of black voters support voter id laws. It puts taxpayer money into political campaigns. The bill includes same-day voter registration, drive-through voting, and allows for ballots to be counted for 10 days after an election. What could go wrong?
So now the focus has shifted to the Electoral Count Act. Frankly, this makes more sense. There is some bipartisan support for reforming the law that governs how Congress deals with presidential election disputes. That is why we are where we are. Some states, mostly red states, passed legislation to secure election integrity and the Democrats don’t like that. It was put on the agenda of some state legislatures after the 2020 election and how Trump insisted that Mike Pence could refuse to accept the Electoral College votes of some states. Pence refused.
Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) is leading a group of senators interesting in looking at reforms that can be made. One possibility is a reform that would clarify the role of the vice-president and eliminate his or her ability to change an outcome.
“There are so many ambiguities and a law that is nearly 150 years old, we need to clarify what is the role of the vice president precisely, make it clear that it’s ministerial,” Ms. Collins said.
The bipartisan group has looked into other areas of possible compromise in addition to changes to the Electoral Count Act, including creating protections against violence and threats for poll workers and election officials, and providing grants to improve voting systems, Ms. Collins said.
Senator Manchin is sounding optimistic that bipartisan agreement on reforms can happen.
“We’re gonna get a bunch of people together, Democrats and Republicans, and get a good piece of legislation that protects the counting of the votes, the accuracy of the vote and making sure that the person basically that has been deemed a winner—you can bet the house on that one,” he said.
Mr. Manchin said he had spoken to Mr. Biden about the Electoral Count Act and the president was supportive of the effort.
Mr. Biden on Wednesday predicted “we’ll get something done on the electoral reform side of this,” even as he expressed disappointment that the broader package wasn’t advancing. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that Mr. Biden is open to talking with lawmakers about the Electoral Count Act.
You can bet that Biden will accept whatever the group comes up with because he’s desperate for a win. He’s going into the midterm elections with his party only able to talk about one big victory, the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Any of the other alleged victories consist only of pushing huge amounts of taxpayer money out in the name of pandemic support. Many states haven’t even spent their share of some of the payments and yet Democrats are already talking about more subsidies and payments going out. Somehow I don’t think that the Democrats are going to buy their way into success at the ballot box in November. Biden’s numbers are at an all-time low and he’s dragging down Democrats up for re-election.
I leave this as a bit of levity. We can all use a laugh these days. There is a meme for everything.
— NewYear, New Goals 2022 (@Ava_lun) January 23, 2022
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