President Joe Biden gave a stemwinder of a speech in Philadelphia Tuesday, declaring that the restoration of voting rights is the urgent national “test of our time,” and calling the mass of new voter suppression laws coming from the states “un-American” and “undemocratic.”

“The denial of a full and free election is the most un-American thing, the most undemocratic, the most unpatriotic,” Biden said. “But unfortunately, it’s not unprecedented,” he continued. “So hear me clearly: There’s an unfolding assault taking place in America today, an attempt to suppress and subvert the right to vote in fair and free elections,” Biden told the cheering crowd. “The Big Lie is just that: a big lie,” Biden said. “In America, if you lose you accept the results, you follow the Constitution. You try again. You don’t call facts fake and try to bring down the American experiment just because you’re unhappy. That’s not statesmanship. It’s selfishness,” Biden added. He said that Republicans must “stand up, for God’s sake,” and oppose voting restrictions, asking, “Have you no shame?”

As a matter of fact, they don’t. “To protect our democracy and the sanctity of the vote, we must pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act,” Biden said. “It is a national imperative.” It really was an excellent speech, passionate and eloquent. It was a fine use of the bully pulpit, as far as it went. It didn’t go far enough. That’s because of what Biden didn’t say, the one word that was missing from the entire speech: “filibuster.”

That was clear to others present:

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He’s apparently leaving it up to the Senate, or perhaps, to Vice President Kamala Harris, who suggested in an interview on NPR Tuesday that she’s talking to her former colleagues about a possible voting rights carve-out to the filibuster. “I believe that of all of the issues that the United States Congress can take up, the right to vote is the right that unlocks all the other rights,” Harris said. “And for that reason, it should be one of its highest priorities.”

“I’m certainly having conversations with folks,” she told NPR. She’s definitely not wrong. She spoke to the suggestion from Rep. Jim Clyburn that bills related to the Constitution, including election and voting rights legislation, be exempted from the filibuster—the 60-vote majority requirement that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republicans have used to stop the Senate from functioning as a legislative body. “Obviously it’s going to require all the Democrats in the Senate to agree with that approach,” Harris said, talking about Clyburn’s proposal.

Clyburn told Politico last week that he’s been talking to White House counselor Steve Ricchetti and Office of Public Engagement director Cedric Richmond about the idea. “I’ve even told that to the vice president,” Clyburn said. He also said that the president could just “pick up the phone and tell [Sen.] Joe Manchin, ‘Hey, we should do a carve out,” continuing “I don’t care whether he does it in a microphone or on the telephone—just do it.” If it doesn’t happen, Clyburn said, “Democrats can kiss the majority goodbye.”

“I can see in a state like Georgia—where people stepped up in January in a way nobody thought they ever would—I can see the disappointment in the voters to the extent that [Sen. Rafael] Warnock would not be back,” he added.

Biden used the microphone on Tuesday. It’s time for him to start using not just the microphone, not just the telephone, and not just Harris—but the weight of the presidency to get these bills passed. He can get Sens. Manchin and Sinema into his office any time he wants. It’s time to save our elections.

He just needs to act on his own words.