On the recordJanuary 13, 2022
Mr. President, first, I want to commend the senior Senator from Arizona for an extraordinary stand of courage and just a great speech on the floor a few minutes ago. I rise today to defend the filibuster again from the latest round of attacks. I did this repeatedly in the last administration, earning the ire and frustration of a President of my own party over and over again as I defended the Senate's purpose and the supermajority requirements that forge a consensus in a big, broad, diverse, continental nation. Today, I rise to defend the filibuster again when it is a President of the other party who has decided to go full demagogue. For his entire career in the Senate--basically, Joe Biden served in this body as long as I have been alive, plus or minus a few years--Joe Biden was a stalwart defender of the filibuster. He said that weakening the filibuster would ``eviscerate the Senate.'' But earlier this week, the President was pushed around by a bunch of rage-addicted 20- somethings on his staff and agreed to go down to Georgia and just read whatever nonsense they loaded into his teleprompter. It was shameful. It was sad. The President of the United States called half of the country a bunch of racist bigots. Think about that--half the country a bunch of racist bigots. He doesn't believe that. This was a senile comment of a man who read whatever was loaded into his teleprompter.…





