terms of both coming in to the hospitals and administering all the help that these states need. that s what we re doing now. i m confident we re on the right track. thank you all. now, of course, the president s obviously juggling the pandemic, as well as this push for voting rights. as for the stacey abrams absence, it does not seem plausible that they simply mixed up their schedules on this event. it s too important to joe biden and stacey abrams for that. but it also doesn t matter whether she s there. the only possible plan for getting this through the senate is to get all a democrats to agree to sidestep the filibuster. the frustration of activists is understandable but joe biden doesn t have the power to force 50 democrats to do that. any individual democrat can hold it up. and so far, joe manchin and kyrsten sinema, among others, have been resistant to attempts to change the fill buster. until that changes this legislation is not going
point. who is bull connor here? i don t think he was saying joe manchin or kyrsten sinema was bull connor. oh, no. who was bull connor? was those who went in the capitol january 6th and did the same violence and decadent behavior that bull connor did. right. he s saying, are you on their side, or are you on this side? i think that he was giving them the opportunity to come forward this week and say, i m on this side rather than that side. and i agree with john. he was laying down the marker. we have the song we sang when i was a kid growing up in the movement. which side are you on? i m on this side. which side are you going to be on? right. that s the challenge. is that on the filibuster mainly? the fill buster and what it does. he carefully and surgically, joe, said, i m not saying get rid of the filibuster. i m saying, let s do what we can around the filibuster in terms
other notable politicians like barack obama and senator elizabeth warren. but interestingly enough, i thought he made some news tonight. he hopes to carry what harry reid talked about with doing away with the fill buster in the weeks and the months and the year ahead. it s obviously a big point of contention in the senate, and a lot of people are calling for democrats to do away with the fill buster to get things like voting rights done. we ll see if he heeds the advice of his late friend. that is big news, ayman. thank you very, very much for sharing that with us. thank you. and see you tomorrow night. tonight we begin with the breaking news of the hour. former senate majority leader harry reid, democrat of nevada, has died at the age of 82. harry reid led the senate democratic caucus for more than 15 years. he was first elected to congress in 1983 as a nevada representative and became a senator in 1987. he served as majority leader from 2007 to 2015 and retired
house has had with kyrsten sinema because of the fill buster and now because of this, that s continued. and now, heads up, usually a little bit earlier than this, but this is where they re at. i will say as the president talks about i don t know if we re going to get this done this time. and as carol was saying, they re going to keep fighting. this is what civil rights leaders and voting rights advocates have been upset with the president on for a long time. they thought the fact he came out so forcefully this week was great against the filibuster. but what they had been wanting and saying is had you come out six months ago, had you talked about this and come out for filibuster reform before you went into the build back better mode, maybe we would be in a better place. we don t know that. but that s what civil rights leaders are saying, so the president is going to have to answer to them about what the next steps look like because the pressure campaign on senators.
attempt will be revisited at the legislative level and pennsylvania majorities are up to the same kind of mischief in terms of trying to control elections. we have to get these elections right. you re right to say that the pressure is on the senate. it will be decided in the senate, but of course, to get rid of the fill buster and you and i have talked many times about the filibuster and you and i agree the filibuster has to go, but for the fill bust tore go the president has to take the lead on this. we ve seen him do some interviews with abc just before christmas, with cnn, a couple of months ago and he s willing to have a carveout for the filibuster. certainly the president and the leader of your party should be front and center in the issue of the filibuster because nothing gets done unless the filibuster is changed and surely the white house should be leading with this. well, you and i have had this conversation. i agree with you. the filibuster has to go. it is a relic, a ves