WASHINGTON – President Biden said he supports the call for a requirement for senators to be on the floor to block bills as Democrats explore ways to make the path to their policy agenda smoother by reviewing the legislative filibuster rule .
The comments Tuesday were a shift for Mr. Biden, who has represented Delaware in the U.S. Senate for 36 years and previously said he prefers to preserve the filibuster rather than get rid of it, as some Democrats have advocated.
“I do not think you should eliminate the filibuster, you should do it as it was when I first came to the Senate in the old days,” he said. Biden said in an ABC News interview. “You had to get up and command the floor, you had to keep talking.”
Asked if that means he supports the discussion of the filibuster, an idea supported by a growing number of Democratic senators, Mr. Biden replied, ‘I am. This is what it had to be. ”
Mr. Biden’s remarks come the same day that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell threatened to suspend the Senate if Democrats made any changes to the filibuster.