Happy Saturday, y’all!
On Thursday, I told you how civil rights leaders were preparing for their meeting with President JOE BIDEN and VP KAMALA HARRIS over voting rights and their belief that the administration wasn’t acting aggressively enough to advocate on the issue. At the very least, they want to see the president focus as much attention on voting rights as he has on infrastructure.
Now, I have some new details about what really happened in that meeting.
— Rev. AL SHARPTON told me that Biden and Harris didn’t make any promises, but that he and the other leaders in the room felt like they absorbed the sense of urgency over the nearly two-hour meeting, and were ready to put the full force of their bully pulpit behind the push for voting rights legislation.
— Civil rights leaders brought up at least two filibuster workarounds in order to protect voting rights: finding a way to use reconciliation to pass it, or reforming the filibuster to make a carveout for the issue.
— On filibuster reform, Sharpton says that Biden was noncommittal but encouraging, urging the civil rights leaders to flesh out what specifically the changes would look like, and bring it back to the White House.
Among civil rights advocates, there’s a growing consensus that the filibuster needs to be changed or else voting rights…
