The president wants voting reform. Can he get it?
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 14 January 2022
⏱️ 26 minutes
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Summary
President Biden says passing voting rights legislation is a top priority for his administration. But a couple of senators have the power to keep that from happening. And, an unlikely casualty of our supply chain blues.
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In Atlanta this week, President Biden pushed for the passage of two voting rights bills facing the Senate. But any meaningful change on voting reform would mean changing Senate rules on the filibuster. And two Democratic senators are holding out: Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
On The Post’s politics podcast “Can He Do That?” national political reporter Cleve Wootson talks with host Allison Michaels about the state of voting legislation and the filibuster.
And, the pandemic claims an unlikely victim: the color blue. Reporter Kelsey Ables explains how breakdowns in the supply chain have led to a shortage of pigments like ultramarine blue and what it could mean for how we see and record the world now.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We have to forge a coalition of Americans every background of political party, the advocates, |
| 0:08.0 | the students, the faith leaders, the labor leaders, the business executives, and raise the |
| 0:12.8 | urgency of this moment. |
| 0:16.7 | Earlier this week in Atlanta, President Biden gave his most forceful speech to date, |
| 0:22.0 | pushing for voting rights legislation. |
| 0:24.6 | The White House says it's been a top priority for them this year. |
| 0:28.0 | Because as much as people know they're screwing around with the election process, I don't |
| 0:31.8 | think that most people think this is about who gets to count what vote counts. |
| 0:41.2 | But not everybody's on board, and with a razor-thin democratic majority in the Senate, the |
| 0:47.6 | main thing that could pass voting rights legislation all comes down to the F-word, the |
| 0:53.7 | filibuster, and changing it basically. |
| 0:57.4 | On Thursday, Senator Kirsten Sinema of Arizona said that she wouldn't support changing |
| 1:02.2 | the rules. |
| 1:03.9 | And while I continue to support these bills, I will not support separate actions that |
| 1:09.2 | were sent the underlying disease of division infecting our country. |
| 1:15.4 | Without her support, it means Democrats push for voting rights could be doomed. |
| 1:22.4 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. |
| 1:25.4 | I'm Alexis Dio. |
| 1:27.0 | On Friday, January 14th. |
| 1:31.0 | Today will the president's tough talk be enough for voter reform? |
| 1:36.6 | And later in the show, the literal unseen casualty of the supply chain. |
| 1:43.4 | But first, voter reform. |
... |
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