Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D–Ariz.) defended the filibuster while speaking to reporters on Wednesday alongside Republican Sen. John Cornyn (Texas).
Sinema argued that the filibuster is necessary to “protect the democracy of our nation rather than allowing our country to ricochet wildly every two to four years.”
“The reality is that when you have a system that is not working effectively — and I would think that most would agree that the Senate is not a particularly well-oiled machine, right? The way to fix that is to fix your behavior, not to eliminate the rules or change the rules, but to change the behavior,” Sinema said.
When asked by a reporter if she was going to budge on the filibuster, she said, “No.”
Sinema’s comments come days after she skipped a vote to create a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Senate Republicans successful filibustered the bill.
That led to renewed calls to end the filibuster as that was likely the first of several bills likely to be blocked by Republicans using the rule that requires 60 votes for most legislation to pass through the Senate.
