(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden said he would support changing the Senate’s filibuster rules to make an exception for legislation ensuring privacy rights and access to abortion, calling the Supreme Court “destabilizing” for controversial decisions, including overturning Roe v. Wade.
Under intensifying pressure from liberal Democrats to respond more forcefully to the court’s decision last week that ended the nationwide right to an abortion in place since 1973, Biden again said Thursday that Congress should pass legislation guaranteeing access to the procedure.
Americans of all political persuasions are frustrated with the state of the nation, with 85% saying that the country is heading in the wrong direction — including nearly eight in 10 Democrats, according to a new poll.
The deep dissatisfaction is reflected in both parties, with 92% of Republicans saying the economy is performing poorly — and 78% of Democrats saying the same, an increase of 35 percentage points since March, according to an Associated Press/NORC survey released on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, as the nation prepares to vote in midterm elections that will determine which party controls Congress, President Biden’s job approval rating continues to tank.
Overall, 60% of Americans disapprove of the job Biden is doing in the White House, including 73% of independents.
More than a quarter of Democrats (27%) disapprove of Biden, while fewer than three-quarters (72%) approve of him.
Senate President Pro Tempore Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), the most senior member of the Senate Democratic Caucus who stands third in the line of presidential succession, fell and broke his hip and will undergo surgery Thursday.
Leahy, who is 82 years old, fell Wednesday evening at his home in McLean, Va., his office announced.
Leahy’s emergency surgery means he may have to miss time in the Senate, which would limit what Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) could schedule in the 50-50 Senate.
Any nominee who doesn’t have Republican support will have to wait for Leahy’s return to work unless there’s also an absence on the GOP side of the aisle.
“This morning, Sen. Leahy will undergo surgery to repair a broken hip that he suffered as a result from a fall at his house in McLean, Virginia, Wednesday night,” Leahy’s office announced in a statement.
President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that he would support nixing the filibuster to pass nationwide abortion laws through the Senate.
“We have to codify Roe v. Wade in the law, and the way to do that is to make sure the Congress votes to do that,” Biden said at a news conference in Europe. “And if the filibuster gets in the way, it’s like voting rights, we provide an exception for this, or an exception to the filibuster for this action.”
The exhortation follows the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade — the 1973 decision claiming that the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution protects abortion — at the end of last week. While several Democrat-run states have pushed for removing limits on abortion, Republican-run states began implementing more regulations.
As Democrats look for the best person to harness the energy and anger many of their voters are feeling after last week’s Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, some are turning to an old friend: Hillary Clinton.
Clinton denies that she has any plan or desire to get back into politics, and Mark Penn, her 2008 presidential campaign chief strategist, tells Fox News it wouldn’t be a good idea. “I don’t think the country wants to go back to candidates who have run before, whether that is Hillary, Biden or Trump. Clinton’s national ratings are below Trump’s at this point,” Penn said.
Sources to major mainstream news outlets such as ABC and NBC News are suggesting that the U.S. Secret Service is prepared to dispute West Wing staffer Cassidy Hutchinson’s Tuesday testimony that former President Donald Trump assaulted an agent while reaching for the steering wheel in a limousine after his Jan. 6 rally.
The reports surfaced quickly after Cassidy’s testimony and after the U.S. Secret Service released a statement saying that its agents will testify before the Jan 6. House Select Committee.
Hutchinson, an aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows testified before the committee on Tuesday that while working on Jan. 6 she was told by others that Trump allegedly assaulted Special Agent Bobby Engel in the presidential limousine and tried to commandeer the car by reaching for the steering wheel after Engel refused to drive him to the U.S. Capitol, which later folded into an explosive riot.
Two former Trump White House officials are claiming authorship of the same handwritten note that was presented as evidence in Tuesday’s Jan. 6 committee hearing, according to a report.
The note pertained to a statement intended for former President Donald Trump to release as his supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. A spokesperson for Eric Herschmann, a former White House attorney, told ABC News on Tuesday that the note was written by Herschmann on Jan. 6. During her testimony, Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, said she had written the note at the direction of Meadows.
