Jen Psaki, White House Press Secretary, vented Friday after expressing frustration at the Biden Administration’s “devastating” week that followed the failure of several Democratic policy initiatives to the Senate. Psaki made a scathing comment on ABC’s “The View” about the Senate’s decision to reject federal voting legislation. He also suggested that the Senate scrap the Senate filibuster and encourage angry supporters to “go kickboxing” and “have an ice cream” during the weekend to get their anger out before continuing the fight.
Psaki said that the only way forward was to continue fighting. Linsey Davis asked her guest co-host Linsey Davis where she thought things were going after Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) voted with all Republicans to oppose changes to the filibuster.
She added, “I believe this week has been frustrating. It’s been devastating. It’s been angering. All of these things.” “There are many activists in this country who have been so pivotal to getting us to this point. Just a year ago, more people opposed filibuster reforms in the Senate. We’ve made some progress, but we need to keep going.”
“So my advice for anyone out there who is frustrated, sad, and angry is to feel those emotions. Go to a kickboxing training class, drink a margarita and do whatever you need to this weekend before getting up on Monday morning. She said, “We have to keep fighting.”
Psaki claimed that senators should continue to push the issue of federal voting legislation because these changes would be permanent and “to ensure people’s rights.” She said that citizens across the country should be educated about their voting rights.
She stated that there is a lot of work to be done on this front and that it will depend on the energy and anger generated by that activism.
Psaki endorsed Democratic talking points, which have cited a variety of voting laws passed by Republican-led state legislatures to be voter suppression. However, Republicans insist that they guarantee election integrity.
With a vote of 49 to 51, the Senate failed Wednesday to approve the Democrat-backed voting legislation. Chuck Schumer, Senate Majority Leader, changed his vote from “no” to “yes” to allow him to propose a motion to reconsider his vote. By 52 votes to 48, the vote to amend the filibuster process was defeated. The current rules were not changed.
