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Fights over the filibuster. Tensions over Israel. Bickering over police funding. And grumbling over immigration policy.

As Congress heads into a hot summer in Washington, discord among Democrats has begun to bubble up, putting a dent in the armor of party unity just as leaders will need it most to pass a series of prominent reform bills they've promised their voters.

The party has razor-thin majorities in both the House and Senate, requiring virtual unanimity on major legislative priorities that have not, or will not, attract support from across the aisle.

But the low simmer of internal disagreement is heating up heading into the short summer session, rattling the lid of party harmony and threatening to spill over in a rolling boil that jeopardizes both Biden's agenda and the Democrats' prospects for keeping the House and Senate in next year's midterm elections.

Amid the frictions, defiant Democrats are insisting the flare ups are merely a routine part of any legislative debate and that they'll be unified when it comes time to vote on specific proposals.

What we show is that there's democracy inside the Democratic Caucus, said Rep. Sheila Jackson LeeSheila Jackson LeeWray grilled on FBI's handling of Jan. 6 California comes to terms with the costs and consequences of slavery Democrats claim vindication, GOP cries witch hunt as McGahn finally testifies MORE (D-Texas).

I have no argument with healthy democratic actions, skepticism, criticism within the Democratic tent, she continued. It's healthy, and then we come full circle and we get a resolution.

Such predictions may prove to be prescient yet, as Democrats charge ahead in the coming months with efforts to adopt a huge infrastructure package, overhaul national policing practices, strengthen voter protections and stabilize a volatile economy just emerging from the shocks of the coronavirus pandemic. To accomplish those things, however, they'll have to quell the conflicts within their diverse and restive ranks conflicts that have surfaced in highly public fashion in both chambers in recent weeks.

Manchin has gone a long step further, opposing voting rights legislation and threatening to oppose any other major proposal, including infrastructure spending, that lacks bipartisan support. The combination of line-in-the-sand positions has infuriated fellow Democrats in and out of Congress, who are accusing the centrist senators of rewarding Republican obstructionism.

We have to dial this in. We have to recognize that waiting for Republicans to come along is like waiting for Godot: it's never going to happen, said Rep. Pramila JayapalPramila JayapalHouse Democrats push Garland for immigration court reforms Progressives rally behind Omar while accusing her critics of bias Bipartisan talks sow division among Democrats MORE (D-Wash.), who heads the Progressive Caucus. We're going to sit under the tree and wait every single day, and they're not going to show up in the numbers that we need in order to pass something with 60 votes.

Rep. Madeleine DeanMadeleine DeanThe Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Facebook - Democrats' agenda in limbo as Senate returns House Democrats to Schumer: Vote again on Jan. 6 probe Democrats claim vindication, GOP cries witch hunt as McGahn finally testifies MORE (D-Pa.) offered a similar warning.

It would have been nice to have bipartisan support, she said. But let it be known that this administration and our caucus can move forward and do big things for America without bipartisan support.

Some of Manchin's Senate colleagues have been even more biting.

If you can figure out what Joe Manchin is about, let me know because I can't, said one Democratic senator.

The cracks are showing in the House as well.

Last month, Democratic leaders struggled to pass what they thought would be an easy lift: legislation to boost security funding at the U.S. Capitol following the violent mob attack of Jan. 6. Instead, a small group of liberal lawmakers, known collectively as the squad, threatened to sink the proposal, saying the police need more accountability, not more funding.

The proposal ultimately squeaked by, 213-212, after three of those liberals agreed to vote present. But the episode emboldened progressives who are fighting racial bias in law enforcement and highlighted the difficulties facing Speaker Nancy PelosiNancy PelosiTrump DOJ seized House Democrats' data from Apple Biden administration releases emergency temporary standard for healthcare facilities Progressives rally behind Omar while accusing her critics of bias MORE (Calif.) and other Democratic leaders as they seek to move contentious legislation with the slimmest of majorities.

More recently, some Democrats particularly members of the Hispanic Caucus were up in arms after Vice President Harris went to Central America and urged would-be Guatemalan migrants to forego any effort to enter the United States. Do not come, do not come, she said.

Harriss impetus was clear: The United States has seen an increase in migration at the southern border, and the Biden administration is under heavy criticism from Republicans blaming his policies for the rise.

We cant help set someones house on fire and then blame them for fleeing, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-CortezAlexandria Ocasio-CortezProgressives rally behind Omar while accusing her critics of bias Omar: I wasn't equating terrorist organizations with democratic countries Ocasio-Cortez rips Democratic critics of Omar MORE (D-N.Y.), a liberal firebrand with Puerto Rican roots, wrote on Twitter.

The latest internal clash featured a Democrat whos grown accustomed to them: Rep. Ilhan OmarIlhan OmarProgressives rally behind Omar while accusing her critics of bias Pelosi, leaders seek to squelch Omar controversy with rare joint statement Omar: I wasn't equating terrorist organizations with democratic countries MORE (Minn.), a Somali refugee and one of the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress. On Monday, Omar took to Twitter to lament the unthinkable human rights atrocities committed by a series of actors, lumping the United States and Israel in with Hamas and the Taliban on her list of targets.

The tweet incensed a number of Jewish Democrats, who responded late Wednesday night with a statement condemning her offensive and misguided message. They called for a clarification, which Omar provided Thursday afternoon. I was in no way equating terrorist organizations with democratic countries with well-established judicial systems, she said.Yet Omar also took an unveiled shot at the dozen Democrats who'd criticized her, accusing them of promoting islamophobic tropes a message of censure that was endorsed by other liberals in the caucus, many of them minorities.

The tense back-and-forth prompted Pelosi to issue a rare joint statement with her full leadership team that sought a delicate balance, at once promoting the right to legitimate criticism of U.S. and Israeli policy while condemning false equivalencies between those nations and terrorist groups. Their statement did not mention Omar's charge of harassment against her Democratic critics.

We welcome the clarification by Congresswoman Omar that there is no moral equivalency between the U.S. and Israel and Hamas and the Taliban, the statement read.

To be sure, the recent disagreements have been relatively minor for the Democrats, who like to boast a big tent and seem to revel in the occasional discord stemming from the diversity in their ranks. But they've also exposed tears in the fabric of Democratic unity at a crucial juncture, when Biden is seeking big victories on major legislation, including proposals around police reform and voting rights that touch on the very issues of race at the root of the Omar uproar.

Nothing has changed. We have the same slim majorities that we had at the beginning of the year. We know how challenging that is, she said.

What we need is for the president to do what he did with the American Rescue Plan, which is to lean in heavily and say, This is my vision as president, as the leader of the Democratic Party, she continued. And if we don't deliver, it is people across the country swing voters, surge reporters who really believe that even though they gave us three branches of government that we can't get anything done. Just like Republicans want people to believe.

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Simmering Democratic tensions show signs of boiling over | TheHill - The Hill

Theres both a pattern thats familiar and specific parallels. First the pattern: the familiar pattern is that you had the enfranchisement of new voters during Reconstruction. It was black voters who turned out in record numbers and were elected. Then you had efforts at violence, fraud, and intimidation to try to suppress black votes. That worked for a time, but when black voters were disenfranchised it was really through legal means like literacy tests, poll taxes, and things like that, which happened when states changed their constitutions a while after the end of Reconstruction. Reconstruction is often thought to have ended in 1877, when Rutherford B. Hayes pulled federal troops out of the South, but blacks still voted in a bunch of states in the South through that period. It wasnt until Mississippi adopted its constitution to disenfranchise black voters in 1890 that Southern states tried to figure out a way to completely disenfranchise them through what were thought of as legal means.

That same kind of process is playing out today: you had the enfranchisement of new groups, manifested in higher turnout in 2020, and you had an attempt to try to overturn the election through extralegal means, including an insurrection. Then, in 2021, you have the so-called legal means to try to disenfranchise people through changes to election law. Those are the big-picture similarities.

The more specific similarities are, number one, the language: Jim Crow never actually said we want to disenfranchise black voters. It was technically race neutral, its just that everyone knew who the target was. The same thing is happening today. Georgia Republicans arent saying we want to disenfranchise black voters, but everyone knows thats their target, because thats the strongest constituency of the Democratic Party. Number two, even back then you had Southern white Democrats in Mississippi because remember that Democrats were the segregationist party back then and Republicans were the party of civil rights, and thats flipped who were arguing that they were expanding voting rights. They either argued they were expanding voting rights or they argued they were protecting the sanctity or purity of the ballot. That same language is being used by Republicans today.

The last thing is that in the nineteenth century they also made it easier to overturn elections by taking away power from bipartisan election officials, and either gave it to partisan election officials or took power from voters to appoint their election officials. That kind of pattern is playing out in states like Georgia and Texas today. So there are big picture parallels, but also a lot of specific similarities in terms of the nature of the laws themselves.

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There's Less Than Two Years to Save American Democracy - Jacobin magazine

Im not being nave, Mr. Manchin insisted, acknowledging that Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate Republican leader, has vowed to block Mr. Bidens agenda. Wed be a lot better if we had participation, and were getting participation, but when it comes time to a final vote He trailed off.

He also suggested that Senate Democrats were partially responsible for the current dilemma on the filibuster in the Senate, noting that it was the majority leader at the time, Harry Reid of Nevada, who first removed parts of the filibuster in 2013.

What goes around comes around here, they all understand that, Mr. Manchin said. And there were 33 Democrats in 2017 that signed a letter to please save the filibuster and save our democracy. Thats what Im trying to do.

Democrats pushed back on that suggestion, saying the erosion of support for the filibuster on their side of the aisle stemmed from the abuse of the rule by Republicans. That was capped by a Republican filibuster late last month of a bipartisan commission to investigate the origins and implications of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters.

Senate Democrats have already had passionate closed-door meetings about the voting rights bill, going state by state through restrictions on voting access either enacted already or making their way through Republican-held legislatures. So far, they have resisted breaking up the For the People Act and passing less partisan measures, like the ethics provisions meant to block profiteering off the presidency and opening the business interests of presidents and vice presidents to more public scrutiny.

Mr. Blumenthal said if Mr. Manchin is firm, conversations about legislative strategy will pick up steam. We cant let the perfect be the enemy of the good, he said.

These measures are about ending campaign finance corruption and political self-aggrandizement in a way that is fundamental to preserving our democracy, along with preserving access to the franchise, which is central to our democracy, he added. Maybe there will be choices ahead, but we need to be very careful about the sacrifices that could be made if we rethink too radically what For the People contains.

Chris Cameron contributed reporting.

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Manchin Vows to Block Democratic Voting Rights Bill and Preserve Filibuster - The New York Times

Joe Biden will use his visit to Europe this week to rally the worlds democracies in a reset of US foreign policy after four turbulent years under Donald Trump all while threats to American democracy, stoked by Trump, proliferate at home.

The presidents plan for the trip was set out in a column for the Washington Post on Saturday night, as Trump spoke to Republicans in North Carolina.

Previewing meetings with many of our closest democratic partners and Vladimir Putin, Biden promised to demonstrate the capacity of democracies to both meet the challenges and deter the threats of this new age.

Critics may point out that the president would do well to face up to attacks on democracy at home. He has put Vice-President Kamala Harris in charge of the matter but there are many fronts to the battle.

In the states, Republicans have passed laws to restrict ballot access and to make it possible to overturn election results.

On the stump, Trump continues to peddle his lie that Bidens victory in November was the result of fraud. In Greenville on Saturday, the former president called his defeat the crime of the century.

In Washington last month, Republicans in the Senate blocked a bipartisan commission to investigate the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January, by supporters Trump told to fight like hell in his cause.

In Bidens own party, centrist senators stand in the way of voting rights protections.

In his column for the Post, Biden tied another domestic priority infrastructure spending, currently tied up in seemingly doomed negotiations with Republicans to a chief foreign policy aim.

Just as it does at home, he wrote, honing the ability of democracies to compete and protecting our people against unforeseen threats requires us to invest in infrastructure. The worlds major democracies will be offering a high-standard alternative to China for upgrading physical, digital and health infrastructure that is more resilient and supports global development.

In North Carolina, Trump said China should pay the US and the world $10tn in reparations for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, while nations should cancel debt to Beijing.

Biden touted domestic successes progress against the coronavirus and the passage of his relief and stimulus package (without a single Republican vote) and said: The United States must lead the world from a position of strength.

He saluted the announcement on Saturday by G7 finance ministers of a global minimum corporate tax rate. Further distancing himself from Trump, who withdrew from the Paris climate deal, he said: We have an opportunity to deliver ambitious progress that curbs the climate crisis and creates jobs by driving a global clean-energy transition.

In office, Trump attacked Nato. Biden saluted the shared democratic values of the most successful alliance in world history. In Brussels, at the Nato summit, I will affirm the United States unwavering commitment to ensuring our alliance is strong in the face of every challenge, including threats like cyberattacks on our critical infrastructure.

Amid proliferating such attacks, he said, it was important that when I meet with Vladimir Putin in Geneva, it will be after high-level discussions with friends, partners and allies who see the world through the same lens as the United States.

Trump famously caused consternation among the US press corps in Helsinki in 2018, meeting Putin without aides and seeming cowed in his presence.

Biden said the US and its allies were standing united to address Russias challenges to European security and there will be no doubt about the resolve of the United States to defend our democratic values, which we cannot separate from our interests.

Some have asked what Biden hopes to gain from meeting Putin former Trump national security adviser John Bolton told the Guardian this week, You meet when you have a strategy in place of how to deal with Russia and I dont think he has one.

In the Post, Biden heralded his extension of the New Start nuclear arms treaty and responses to cyberattacks.

I will again underscore the commitment of the United States, Europe and like-minded democracies to stand up for human rights and dignity, he wrote.

This is a defining question of our time: can democracies come together to deliver real results for our people in a rapidly changing world? Will the democratic alliances and institutions that shaped so much of the last century prove their capacity against modern-day threats and adversaries?

I believe the answer is yes. And this week in Europe, we have the chance to prove it.

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Biden trumpets democracy abroad in Post op-ed as threats spread at home - The Guardian

Sen. Angus King (I-ME) said on Sunday that while he is very reluctant to abolish the legislative filibuster, he would side with passing voting-rights legislation over the filibuster if he had to make a choice. With moderate Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema opposing any elimination or weakening of the filibuster to pass the Biden administrations agenda items, Kingwho caucuses with Democratswas pressed by CNN anchor Jake Tapper on his stance.

Not in general, King replied when asked if he was ready to get rid of the filibuster, adding: Im very reluctant about it. But if it comes down to voting rights and the rights of Americans to go to the polls and select their leaders versus the filibuster, Ill choose democracy.

Kings comments come in the wake of Manchins declaration that he will oppose the For the People Act, Democrats sweeping election overhaul bill. In an op-ed published Sunday, Manchin claimed the legislation was too partisan and will destroy the already weakening blinds of our democracy.

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Sen. King: 'Very Reluctant' to End Filibuster but Will Choose 'Democracy' Over It - The Daily Beast