Vice President Kamala Harris’ vow to intestine the Senate’s filibuster rule to go a invoice codifying abortion rights has price her an endorsement from a number one Senate average: Joe Manchin.
The West Virginia unbiased, one of many staunchest defenders of the potent delay tactic within the Senate, instructed CNN on Tuesday that he wouldn’t again her candidacy now — regardless of signaling earlier this month he was preparing to accomplish that.
“Shame on her,” Manchin, who's retiring at 12 months’s finish, mentioned within the Capitol. “She knows the filibuster is the Holy Grail of democracy. It’s the only thing that keeps us talking and working together. If she gets rid of that, then this would be the House on steroids.”
Now that Harris has vowed to intestine the filibuster on this problem, Manchin mentioned he wouldn’t again her for president.
“That ain’t going to happen,” he mentioned. “I think that basically can destroy our country, and my country is more important to me than any one person or any one person’s ideology. … I think it’s the most horrible thing.”
Manchin, a former Democrat who registered as an unbiased earlier this 12 months, mentioned he nonetheless hasn’t spoken to Harris regardless of his makes an attempt to accomplish that.
Manchin’s feedback come within the wake of Harris telling Wisconsin Public Radio this week, “We should eliminate the filibuster for Roe.”
Doing so would decrease the edge from 60 votes to a easy majority of 51 to advance laws to defend abortion rights.
Defenders of the filibuster say preserving the device forces consensus within the physique, not like within the House of Representatives, the place laws might be rammed via by a majority vote. But critics say the tactic has been abused to stop the Senate from appearing on laws backed by massive swaths of the American public.
Senate GOP Whip John Thune attacked Harris over her filibuster feedback and vowed to protect the delay tactic if he's elected as majority chief.
With Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stepping down, Thune is among the three Senate Republicans operating for his perch atop the Senate GOP.
“I think they’re willing to change the filibuster over a whole range of issues,” Thune mentioned of the Democrats. “That’s the problem,” including they've an inventory of laws they need to “pass at 51 votes in the Senate, which undermines not only the Senate but the country which is designed to protect minority rights. Once they do it there, they will do it on everything.”
When requested by CNN whether or not he would change the filibuster on any problem if he was majority chief, Thune mentioned: “No.”
Sen. Bob Casey, a susceptible Pennsylvania Democrat, instructed CNN Tuesday that he helps Harris’ push so as to go abortion laws.
“I think it makes sense to change the rule,” Casey mentioned, including that it’s his perception Democrats ought to dispose of the requirement to tackle a complete host of coverage points they care about.
“Well, I’ll just say what I believe. I believe for a long time that the 60-vote rule has been an impediment to progress on a whole host of fronts, including voting rights, which we tried to pass in 2022,” he continued. “And in the process of trying to pass the bill, we tried to change the rule. So we can pass voting rights. I think the same is true for women’s rights, workers’ rights, so common sense gun measures to reduce gun violence. So on a whole host of fronts.”
This story has been up to date with further developments.
