Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central the filibuster, And before you say, oh,
Speaker 1: that is some boring senec rule, what the does that
Speaker 1: have to do with me? Trevor. First of all, please
Speaker 1: do not curse on my show. There's no need to
Speaker 1: be crude. And secondly, it actually has to do with
Speaker 1: pretty much everything right now, Like think of all the
Speaker 1: big issues that President Biden wants to tackle, voter suppression,
Speaker 1: protecting unions, immigration reform, finding out who snitched on his
Speaker 1: dog major right now, Senate Republicans can block Joe Biden
Speaker 1: from doing any of that stuff, which is why now
Speaker 1: Biden is saying he wants to streak things up for
Speaker 1: the first time and his presidency, President Biden is making
Speaker 1: the case for not eliminating, but reforming the Senate legislative filibuster.
Speaker 1: You've been reluctant to do away with the filibuster. Aren't
Speaker 1: you gonna have to choose between preserving the filibuster and
Speaker 1: advancing your agenda? Yes, but here's the choice. I don't
Speaker 1: think you have to eliminate the filibuster. You have to
Speaker 1: do it what it used to be when I first
Speaker 1: got to the center and back in the old days
Speaker 1: at a filipbuster, you had to stand up and command
Speaker 1: the floor and you had to keep talking along. So
Speaker 1: you gotta work for the filibuster. So you're for that reform.
Speaker 1: You're for bringing back the talking Philippus, I am, that's
Speaker 1: what it was supposed to be. It almost is getting
Speaker 1: to the point where there's you know, democracy is having
Speaker 1: a hard time functioning. That's right. Biden doesn't want to
Speaker 1: stop the filibuster entirely. He just wants to slow it down,
Speaker 1: kind of like how they try and slow drives down
Speaker 1: with those little speed bumps that they installed around my
Speaker 1: neighborhoods elementary school. At least think those were speed bumps.
Speaker 1: And this may seem like a small change, but making
Speaker 1: things just a little more annoying could actually make a
Speaker 1: big difference. I mean, think about it. We buy stuff
Speaker 1: online because we can get it in one click, but
Speaker 1: when you actually have to go down to the store,
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, you're like, man, well I
Speaker 1: have to find my keys, you know what. I don't
Speaker 1: need that hard medicine. I'll be fine. But the question is,
Speaker 1: how did the filibuster become the legislation US so that
Speaker 1: it is today? Well, let's find out in another episode
Speaker 1: of If You don't Know, Now You Know. Let's start
Speaker 1: with the simplest explanation of the filibuster. It's basically a
Speaker 1: loophole in the Senate rules for blocking legislation because even
Speaker 1: though you only need fifty votes to possible, you need
Speaker 1: sixty votes to stop the debate over voting on that
Speaker 1: bill in the first place, which means as long as
Speaker 1: the minority party can keep debating, then the bill is
Speaker 1: basically dead. And if you're wondering why on earth with
Speaker 1: the founding fathers put that in the Constitution, well they didn't.
Speaker 1: The filibuster began as a historical accident. It's not some
Speaker 1: great tradition in the Senate that's protected by the Constitution.
Speaker 1: That happened in eighteen o five after Aaron Burke suggests
Speaker 1: that the rules changed. Aaron Burr, as Vice President in
Speaker 1: the early dreds, is going over these rules of the
Speaker 1: Senate and he made a critical mistake. We thought, we
Speaker 1: don't really need a way to stop a debate, do we.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's just a field us like, we will
Speaker 1: debate until we're done, until everyone's had their say. How
Speaker 1: slow could the Senate really be nobody knew it at
Speaker 1: the time. It would be three more decades before the
Speaker 1: first filibuster was actually mounted, but that was a moment
Speaker 1: the Senate created the filibuster. That's right. The filibuster isn't
Speaker 1: in the Constitution. It's just a rule that was made
Speaker 1: up by that guy who shot linn Manuel Miranda. And
Speaker 1: it didn't even start out as a way to block legislation.
Speaker 1: It was a way for the Senate to keep debate open,
Speaker 1: not to debate for so long that nobody could ever
Speaker 1: actually vote on a bill. So it's original purpose is
Speaker 1: completely different from what people decided to use it for
Speaker 1: later on. It's insane. It's sort of like how Facebook
Speaker 1: was invented as a way to see which of your
Speaker 1: classmates were hot, and then years later became a way
Speaker 1: to organize a lynch mob for Mike Pence, by the way,
Speaker 1: is hot. And you might wonder why senators back then
Speaker 1: would want to risk having an endless debate, but don't forget, guys,
Speaker 1: in hundreds, wasn't anything better to do. I mean, it
Speaker 1: was either listened to Thaddeus talk about a bill, or
Speaker 1: take a bumping carriage right back to your plantation, where
Speaker 1: a bunch of black people wanted to discuss their terms
Speaker 1: of employment. You're probably gonna want to hear what Thaddeus
Speaker 1: has to say either way. Eventually, senators realized that they
Speaker 1: could block legislation by debating forever, and that could get
Speaker 1: pretty ridiculous because there was no rule on what counted
Speaker 1: as a debate. So senators came up with all kinds
Speaker 1: of random ways to fill that time, which led to
Speaker 1: moments like this. Louisiana Democrat Huey Long filibustered several bills.
Speaker 1: In arguing against a bill, he recited recipes for salad
Speaker 1: dressing and discussed at length the best way to fry oysters.
Speaker 1: This most famous filibuster was on June twelve. He was
Speaker 1: able to speak without stop for fifteen hours. In thirty minutes,
Speaker 1: running out of things to say about the bill, he
Speaker 1: offered to give advice on any subject someone requested. Yep
Speaker 1: in this white dude rambled on about nothing for over
Speaker 1: fifteen hours, and somehow he gets zero credit for invent
Speaker 1: in the podcast. So unfair, but the Senate is crazy, man.
Speaker 1: This guy got on the floor and talked for fifteen
Speaker 1: hours about oysters and salad dressing. I mean, they should
Speaker 1: make it a rule that you at least have to
Speaker 1: try to connect your speech to the bill that you're
Speaker 1: supposed to be debating. I guarantee they're shalad dressing and delicious.
Speaker 1: But you know what doesn't leave a good taste in
Speaker 1: my mouth letting women wear a pan. But still, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna lie. It's impressive that he could talk for
Speaker 1: that long. That ship is hard. I can't even think
Speaker 1: of twenty seconds of stuff to talk about to a
Speaker 1: coworker in an elevator. So I'm gonna floor nine. Huh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how's this weather? We're having so much weather? I think
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna get out here good. I will say, though,
Speaker 1: it makes sense that senators are so good at filibustering
Speaker 1: because most of them are grandparents. Don't forget that. Visit
Speaker 1: your granddad and see if he doesn't take three hours
Speaker 1: to tell you a story that happened in twenty minutes.
Speaker 1: Your filibuster and grandpa. But it wasn't until the late
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties that the filibusters started to become more common.
Speaker 1: And what cause was so inspiring to senators at that
Speaker 1: time that they just had to stand up and speak
Speaker 1: for hours being racist. For a few decades, the filibusters used,
Speaker 1: but pretty sparingly. Then the Senate starts to consider civil
Speaker 1: rights legislation, and Southern senators really hate this, but they
Speaker 1: don't have the votes to actually defeat the bills, so
Speaker 1: they start using the filibuster. It became a tool that
Speaker 1: Southern senators used to prevent the federal government from intervening
Speaker 1: in racial segregation. Perhaps the most famous one was when
Speaker 1: the South Carolina strom Thurmond took the floor against the
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty seven Civil Rights Act. Thurman notoriously read the
Speaker 1: phone book, clocking in it more than twenty four hours
Speaker 1: to try to block a nineteen fifty seven civil rights bill.
Speaker 1: How did you last twenty four hours? You never left
Speaker 1: the Senate floor? I go now to sendvance three day
Speaker 1: of aforehand and drive out my body in the Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I wouldn't be chempted to go to the bathroom
Speaker 1: and so and so I was able to do that.
Speaker 1: Oh strong, you are too much. And when I think
Speaker 1: about all those black people who suffered because of you,
Speaker 1: A go for real, man, how gross was that story?
Speaker 1: This guy dried out his body to help him filibuster?
Speaker 1: You know someone has committed to racism when they're willing
Speaker 1: to jerky themselves for it, and greatly is amazing what
Speaker 1: humans can accomplish when confronted with their worst fears. Just
Speaker 1: as a mother will be able to lift the car
Speaker 1: off of the ground to save her child, a racist
Speaker 1: senator will suddenly be able to speak for days at
Speaker 1: a time only if it will stop a black person
Speaker 1: from using his bathroom. I mean, the filibuster was used
Speaker 1: to block black people so many times, I'm surprised they
Speaker 1: never use it at nightclubs. A black guy, Hey, before
Speaker 1: I let you in, have I ever told you about
Speaker 1: my salad dressing? Two table spoons of lemon juice, a
Speaker 1: pinch of rosemary, And what you want to try and
Speaker 1: do is make sure that okay, he's gone now. Eventually,
Speaker 1: the Senate decided that all of these talkathons were slowing
Speaker 1: things down too much, so in they made what they
Speaker 1: thought was a small adjustment to the rules. Instead of
Speaker 1: having to speak, a senator could just announce that they
Speaker 1: planned to speak, and unless there were sixty votes to
Speaker 1: prevent them, the filibuster would be considered successful. And that
Speaker 1: actually worked for a while until two things happened, America
Speaker 1: elected a black president and a Senate minority leader who
Speaker 1: was willing to do anything to stop him. The practice
Speaker 1: became an art form for Republicans under Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Speaker 1: During the Obama years, McConnell impeded nominees and legislation left
Speaker 1: and right. He has the nickname the grim Reaper for
Speaker 1: a reason. Today it's being used in a different way.
Speaker 1: It's being used to effectively kill measure a bill, a
Speaker 1: proposal that the minority really doesn't like. In fact, there
Speaker 1: have been more filibusters during Obama's time in office than
Speaker 1: in the fifties, sixties, and seventies combined over the entire
Speaker 1: history of the Senate. Before President Obama, just sixty eight
Speaker 1: judicial and executive branch nominees were blocked and required closure,
Speaker 1: which ends a filibuster and forces an upper down vote.
Speaker 1: By contrast, seventy nine of President Obama's nominees required cloture.
Speaker 1: From two thousand nine alone, Republicans used the filibuster against
Speaker 1: virtually every controversial bill and nomination, and some that were
Speaker 1: in controversial at all. Mitch McConnell has the devious distinction
Speaker 1: of being the only sitting senator that filibustered his own bill.
Speaker 1: God damn, Mitch McConnell loves to filibuster so much. He
Speaker 1: filibustered his own bill, and he has to get four
Speaker 1: ribs removed to be able to do it. The man
Speaker 1: is sick. But yes, once Obama became president, McConnell began
Speaker 1: filibuster ring everything. Obama wanted to appoint a judge, McConnell
Speaker 1: blocked it. Obama wanted to possible, McConnell stopped him. Obama
Speaker 1: wanted to watch something on Netflix. McConnell hid the remote
Speaker 1: in his neck. Falls. I haven't seen it anywhere. Man,
Speaker 1: Maybe or should write a mark ma. And once McConnell
Speaker 1: decided to block Obama's entire agenda, that became the new president.
Speaker 1: You know, when Democrats got the chance, they blocked President
Speaker 1: Trump's agenda just as hard, to the point where now
Speaker 1: practically every piece of legislation in the Senate needs sixty
Speaker 1: votes to pass. And that's why there's a movement to
Speaker 1: get rid of the filibuster entirely, because it's not healthy
Speaker 1: for a democracy if the losers can always block the
Speaker 1: winners from passing their agenda. Now, The Democrats don't have
Speaker 1: the votes right now to kill the filibuster completely, but
Speaker 1: based on Joe Biden's interview, it seems like they may
Speaker 1: be willing to make it more annoying again, which won't
Speaker 1: stop filibusters from happening, but at least will finally get
Speaker 1: to find out what Mitch McConnell uses in this salad dressing.
Speaker 1: So what you wanted the chairs of poor people man,
Speaker 1: and you want to grind it up with oppression. So
Speaker 1: that's the filibuster. And if you don't know, now you know.
Speaker 1: The Daily Show with Trevor no Ears Edition. Subscribe to
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