Joe Biden attacked Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) claiming he wasn’t able to pass his voting agenda because they tended to vote with Republicans. We reported how that was a lie, that actually Manchin and Sinema have voted with Biden 100% of the time so far.

Jen Psaki tried to soften up what Biden said a bit, trying to argue it wasn’t really an attack, as though he didn’t actually say what he did. But she failed badly.

But if Biden was trying to put pressure on Manchin and Sinema to switch and vote with him, lying about them didn’t seem like the best way.

So how did that work? What did they think about the message?

Turns out that Sinema had a bit of a message of her own. And she made it in a rather interesting way.

Sinema confirmed that she would not be changing her mind on the question of the filibuster. She was with Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) when she gave that message, there to visit the border because of concerns they both have about the border crisis. Her presence there with Cornyn on that particular issue was another point being made to Biden about bipartisanship.

Q: "So you're not going to budge on the filibuster?"

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, standing next to GOP Sen. John Cornyn: "No." pic.twitter.com/GlDJzyYoD1

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) June 2, 2021

Sinema explained the reason she didn’t vote on a commission for the Capitol riot is that she had a personal family matter. She then explained her support for the filibuster. She was asked what she thought about people saying that it was a choice between the filibuster and “democracy.” Sinema turned that around on them, saying that was a “false choice,” that, indeed, it’s the filibuster that protects democracy. Sinema gave a very well-reasoned defense.

Sinema on not voting on the Jan. 6 commission: “I had a personal family matter.”

On the filibuster: “To those who say we must make a choice between the filibuster and X, I say this is a false choice.” pic.twitter.com/9RbLRwfmU8

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) June 2, 2021

“Rather than allowing our country to ricochet wildly every two to four years, back and forth between policies,” Sinema explained the filibuster was created to help senators find comity and work together in a bipartisan way. “When you have a system that is not working effectively,” she declared, “The way to fix that is to change your behavior, not to eliminate the rules, or change the rules, but change your behavior.”

That may be the best explanation of a position I’ve heard from a politician in some time. She actually gets it and believes it. How nice to hear. And in so doing, is actually protecting not only the Senate but Democrats’ future position if Republicans take over in 2022. The Democrats are just so drunk with the effort to solidify their power that they don’t realize that.