Voting & ethics bills ailing, not dead – key Dem

Democrats will keep fighting for sweeping voting and ethics legislation even though it’s “on life support,” House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Sunday.

The veteran lawmaker took a long view ahead of Martin Luther King Day.

“They may be on life support,” Clyburn (photo) said of the bills, “but you know, John Lewis and others did not give up after the ‘64 Civil Rights Act. That’s why we got the ‘65 Voting Rights Act.”

Clyburn was referencing the legendary late congressman and his work helping pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended public segregation and banned employment discrimination, and legislation passed the following year cracking down on discriminatory voting practices in Southern states.

“We’re not giving up,” Clyburn asserted. “We’re going to fight, and we plan to win because the people of good will are going to break their silence and help us win.”

President Biden made similar comments while seeming to concede Friday that he didn’t have the support to pass bills that would include striking down barriers to voting and reducing the power of big money in elections.

“The honest to God answer is I don’t know whether we can get this done,” Biden said after Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) announced she wouldn’t support maneuvers to get around a Republican filibuster.

“As long as I’m in the White House, as long as I’m engaged at all, I’m going to be fighting,” Biden added.

Republicans continued to blast the sweeping voting rights legislation over the weekend, with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) accusing Biden of “misleading” the public about the bills.

“Now if you’re trying to call the United States of America to unity, trying to get us to where we will come to common ground, you don’t end up spreading things that are untrue, are frankly lies, and that’s why people think we need to filibuster,” Cassidy told CNN’s “State of the Union.”