Does Joe Biden ever get anything right?

It’s a good question. He surely doesn’t like to own any failure and he likes to shift blame when it happens. He’s already trying to argue why he hasn’t passed his bill that effectively tries to nationalize elections and grab power for the Democrats.

Biden calling out Manchin and Sinema:

"I hear all the folks on TV saying why doesn't Biden get this done. Well because Biden only has a majority of effectively four votes in the House, and a tie in Senate with two members of the Senate who vote more with my Republican friends." pic.twitter.com/JTImNGFZEk

— Jan Wolfe (@JanNWolfe) June 1, 2021

Biden whines and spins, “I hear all the folks on TV saying why doesn’t Biden get this done? Well, because Biden only has a majority of effectively four votes in the House and a tie in the Senate, with two members of the Senate who vote more with my Republican friends. But we’re not giving up.”

First of all, he’s obviously referring to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ). Except there’s a small problem with the excuse-making from Biden.

Manchin and Sinema have actually voted with Biden 100% of the time so far.

Manchin and Sinema have actually voted in favor of *every* Biden-backed bill, according the FiveThirtyEight’s tool for tracking this sort of thing.

The issue is their stance on the filibuster, which effectively blocks many other bills from getting a vote.https://t.co/GOsV2lreTa

— Jan Wolfe (@JanNWolfe) June 1, 2021

So that’s just another blatant lie from Joe Biden.

The issue is not that Manchin and Sinema have voted differently so far, the issue is they are against blowing up the filibuster so Democrats can’t pistol-whip things through without 60 votes. That’s what’s at issue here. Biden wants to eliminate that so Republicans can’t use the filibuster to block anything. Biden wants to eliminate minority party rights, despite the fact that he’s fought FOR the filibuster for most of his career in the Senate. Despite the fact that the Democrats relied on it heavily last year, using it over 300 times. But now it’s “Jim Crow” and “racist.”

Democrats don’t actually get how much Manchin and Sinema are actually saving them by wanting to preserve the rules. Remember the last time Democrats, via Harry Reid, did away with the rules? That didn’t work out very well for them, did it? But that’s where they’re heading with this as well. They’ll eliminate it to try to get what they want and then find themselves in the minority again with no recourse. And they will really have deserved it.

There will be more pressure brought to bear and who knows if they might yet cave. If Biden thinks by lying about Manchin and Sinema, that’s going to help convince them, I’m thinking that’s a no.

But interestingly, as Glenn Greenwald notes, it’s not just Manchin and Sinema who are objecting to Biden on this.

On the left: the tactic I described in 2011 Dems use to trick their supporters to believe they are trying hard to get good things done but, gosh darn, are just failing.

On the right: Dems admitting Manchin & Sinema have numerous Dem allies who want things blocked but stay quiet: pic.twitter.com/Z8znAWF6bp

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 1, 2021

“A lot of members are happy Joe Manchin is the tip of the spear, getting shot at every day,” a Dem aide told The Daily Beast. “Seven or eight of them stand behind him.”

If Manchin/Sinema weren’t blocking the nice things, Dems would get someone else to:https://t.co/uaZO0SlxuQ

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 1, 2021