During an event commemorating the Tulsa Massacre on Tuesday, President Joe Biden claimed that the Democratic Party “only has a majority of effectively four votes in the House and a tie in the Senate, with two members of the Senate who vote more with my Republican friends.”
Biden didn’t name the two senators, but his comments are widely being interpreted to refer to Sen. Joe Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. Manchin and Sinema differ from Biden and many Democrats on some notable issues, in particular proposals to do away with the filibuster, which Biden has said he wants to reform or perhaps even end. In another prominent break, Manchin effectively shut down Biden’s nomination for the Office and Management and Budget by announcing his disapproval, but the nomination was withdrawn before it went to a vote. Manchin and Sinema both voted in line with Trump’s agenda during his presidency 50.4 percent of the time. But despite the pair’s past voting record and public disagreements with Biden, when it comes to actual votes cast during the Biden administration, it’s been a completely different story: Both have voted in line with Biden’s agenda 100 percent of the time.
While Manchin and Sinema may not toe the party line on every issue and have records more bipartisan than many of their colleagues, it is false for Biden to claim that the pair have voted with Republicans more often than Democrats during his presidency.
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