President Obama is scheduled to deliver a statement at 1:55 PM ET from the White House Press Briefing Room on the Senate's
filibuster rule change earlier today. You can watch live video of his statement in the video feed embedded above and we will post updates throughout his remarks.
10:58 AM PT: The president will begin in a little more than a minute.
11:01 AM PT: Obama: "An unprecedented pattern of obstruction" is one of the reasons that people are so frustrated with Washington. "Repeated abuse of these tactics" have prevented progress—notably, all the examples he starts out with are focused on legislation.
11:02 AM PT: "It's harmed our economy and harmed our democracy. ... It's gotten to the point where a simple majority vote is no longer sufficient for anything." [...] "Today's pattern of obstruction just isn't normal ... a deliberate and determined effort to obstruct everything ... is not normal."
11:03 AM PT: So, not surprisingly, Obama supports the Senate action, which applies to judicial all nominees except SCOTUS nominees.
11:06 AM PT: "A majority of senators believe, as I believe, that enough is enough."
11:06 AM PT: “This gridlock has not served the cause of justice, in fact it has undermined it.”
11:09 AM PT: Obama concludes: "The gears of government have to work, the step that a majority of senators took today, I think will help make those gears work just a little bit better."
11:11 AM PT: One thing that really struck me was that at the top of his remarks, President Obama ran through a litany of legislation that had been stymied by the filibuster. Clearly, even though today's move was not explicitly about legislation, Obama's suggestion was that the legislative filibuster needs reform as well.
12:40 PM PT: Transcript of President Obama's comments.