President Joe Biden made one of the most stunning speeches of his long career during an Atlanta, Georgia visit on Tuesday, January 11. It was neither his passion nor delivery that marked this latest address as one for the history books, but rather his volte-face on the filibuster, his fibs about arrest, and his declaring as racist all those who oppose his legislative agenda.
Faking the Filibuster?
“Today, we call on Congress to pass the Freedom to Vote Act. Pass it now,” Biden thundered. “It’s also time to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. I’ve been having these quiet conversations with members of Congress for the past two months. I’m tired of being quiet.”
He then got to the meat of the matter, conducting a complete 180° turn on his previous filibuster stance. He declared:
“I believe the threat to our democracy is so grave that we must find a way to pass these voting rights bills, to bake them in, vote, and let the majority prevail. And if that bare minimum is blocked, we have no option but to change the Senate rules, including getting rid of the filibuster.”
President Biden adamantly supported the filibuster in the past when Republicans had the upper hand, deeming it a safeguard against the majority. But when power glints in the eye, it seems that temptation is too much. Like Frodo Baggins being seduced by the charm of the ring, Biden appears willing to succumb to hypocrisy for the promises of legislative success.
And yet even if Senate leaders agreed to push ahead, it would still require a majority to scrap the offending filibuster, and Democrats don’t have it. West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin (D) made his position extremely clear, saying, “We need some good rules changes to make the place work better. But getting rid of the filibuster doesn’t make the place work better.” Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema (D) also appears unwilling to jettison the long-standing balance measure.
So for all his bluster, Joe Biden is no closer to ending the filibuster than he was before the speech.
Another Arrest Fairytale?
Speaking to the audience, Biden tied his personal history to that of the civil rights movement. “I did not walk in the shoes of generations of students who walked these grounds. But I walked other grounds. Because I’m so damn old, I was there as well,” he reminisced. “You think I’m kidding, man. It seems like yesterday the first time I got arrested.”
Is the president claiming that he was arrested on a civil rights march? It certainly seems that way. But one should recall that the numerous such claims of arrest by the commander-in-chief have – in the past – strayed some distance from reality.
In February 2020, while campaigning for the presidency, Joe Biden related a story sure to warm the hearts of Americans. He said:
“This day, 30 years ago, Nelson Mandela walked out of prison and entered into discussions about apartheid. I had the great honor of meeting him. I had the great honor of being arrested with our U.N. ambassador on the streets of Soweto trying to get to see him on Robben Island.”
That’s quite the claim to fame. The only problem is, it never happened. When called out on this by even the left-leaning legacy media, he explained, “When I said arrested, I meant I was not able to move, cops and Afrikaners would not let me go with them … I guess I wasn’t arrested; I was stopped.” Naturally, the retraction gained less coverage than the initial lie.
Friend or Foe?
(Photo by Peter Zay/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
In a moment reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s “deplorable” moment, the president posed a question: “I ask every elected official in America. How do you want to be remembered?” He continued:
“At consequential moments in history, they present a choice: Do you want to be the si— on the side of Dr. [Martin Luther] King or George Wallace? Do you want to be on the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be on the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?”
The choice is clear in Biden’s mind if nowhere else. Lawmakers can align with MLK or with former segregationist Democrat Governor of Alabama George Wallace (also a Democrat presidential primary candidate on numerous occasions). But it was not so long ago when Biden himself was on the side of Wallace.
Praising Wallace in 1975, then-Senator Biden noted that “I think the Democratic Party could stand a liberal George Wallace — someone who’s not afraid to stand up and offend people, someone who wouldn’t pander but would say what the American people know in their gut is right.”
So Joe Biden asks elected officials to choose a side. It seems that the president should be the first to make that decision himself. During an interview with Al Sharpton in 2019, Biden attempted to explain away his previous work with segregationists. He said, “You got to deal with what’s in front of you and what was in front of you was a bunch of racists, and we had to defeat them.” If by “defeating” them, he meant being one of the leaders of the anti-busing movement, then it seems that Biden chose his side long ago.
~ Read more from Mark Angelides.
