Warner backing ‘small carve-out’ on filibuster for voting rights

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said on Sunday that he would back a “small carve-out” on the filibuster for voting rights legislation. 

“I don’t want the Senate to become like the House, but I do believe when it comes to voting rights, when it comes to that basic right to exercise and participate in democracy, I get very worried what’s happening in some of these states where they are actually penalizing, saying if you give somebody water waiting in line to vote, or in states like Texas where they are seeing a local government can overcome the results of a local election, that is not democracy,” Warner told host Martha MacCallum on “Fox News Sunday.”

“And if we have to do a small carve-out on filibuster for voting rights, that is the only area where I would allow that kind of reform,” Warner said. 

Warner’s comments come as Republican lawmakers are calling for a filibuster on voting rights bills, which come in response to GOP-led states passing restrictive voting measures in 2021. 

The Virginia Democrat also questioned Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) opening the door to changing the filibuster in 2013. 

“Listen, I would wish we wouldn’t even have started this a decade ago. When the Democratic leaders actually changed the rules, I don’t think we have the Supreme Court we did if we still had a 60-vote margin on the filibuster,” Warner told MacCallum. 

“But we are where we are, and the idea that somehow to protect the rights of the minority in the Senate, we’re going to cut out rights of minorities and young people all across the country, that’s just not right to me.”