Rick Santorum
Former Sen. Rick Santorum.
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call
  • Santorum was secretly taped saying Republicans don't want Democrats carrying out the public's wishes.
  • "No! No, no no, we don't want the people's will to be done immediately," he said at a conservative event.
  • He also urged activists to flood Manchin and Sinema's offices with calls thanking them for preserving the filibuster.
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Former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania was filmed saying Republicans are opposed to Democrats carrying out the wishes of most voters.

The video was posted Friday by Democratic activist Lauren Windsor, several days after posting another one showing a Texas GOP congressman saying he favored "18 months of chaos" until the 2022 midterms.

"We have a bunch of people running around, particularly progressives, who all they want to talk about is let the people's will be done," the former 2016 GOP primary candidate said in the video, taken at a June 29 Patriot Voices event. "No! No, no no, we don't want the people's will to be done immediately."

He added: "Remember our constitution was set up to protect who? Minority rights. Not the majority rights."

Santorum's remarks are likely referencing progressive lawmakers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. She's among the many Democrats urging President Joe Biden to scrap the filibuster, the 60-vote threshold most bills need to clear the Senate.

The Senate is evenly divided at 50-50, resulting in a GOP blockade on a major portion of Biden's agenda on voting rights, immigration, and police reform. Democrats are preparing to bypass Republicans on infrastructure using reconciliation, a pathway to approve budgetary bills with only a simple majority vote. The tactic is available to them given their tie-breaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris.

But the effort to abolish the filibuster has crashed into resistance from Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, which requires every Senate Democrat to be onboard. Neither has budged on it and they argue it's the best way to rescue the last vestiges of bipartisanship in the upper chamber.

"My support for retaining the 60-vote threshold is not based on the importance of any particular policy. It is based on what is best for our democracy," Sinema wrote in a recent Washington Post op-ed. "The filibuster compels moderation and helps protect the country from wild swings between opposing policy poles."

Santorum, along with a group of GOP lawmakers, urged conservative activists to flood Manchin and Sinema's offices with messages of gratitude for refusing to scrap the filibuster.

"Call Joe Manchin and say, 'Thank you,'" he said. "Seriously. Call Kyrsten Sinema and say, 'Thank you.'"

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