Manchin Confronted: "Haven't You Empowered Republicans To Be Obstructionists?"
Members of the media taking senator on, over defense of filibuster
Sen Joe Manchin has for some time cast his defense of the Senate filibuster in high-minded rhetoric — even after Manchin himself displayed public exasperation with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell used it to inexcusably obstruct a bipartisan commission to study the events of the deadly January 6 Capitol insurrection.
Manchin's stubbornness on the filibuster threatens a raft of President Biden's and the other Democrats’ legislative agenda — including a minimum wage increase, voting rights protection, infrastructure improvements, and more.
Of course, Manchin's Democratic colleagues have been losing patience with the conservative West Virginia Democrat's apparent appetite for Republican obstruction for some time now.
But now, it's gotten to a point where Manchin's being called out by members of the media — sometimes to his face, and sometimes in not-so-flattering terms.
Mehdi Hasan, one of the politics hosts on the Peacock streaming service, questioned Manchin's insistence that all federal legislation must be bipartisan and therefore the filibuster is necessary.
“But why should federal action be bipartisan while Republican action at a state level is totally partisan? It makes no sense. Which means the GOP is waging asymmetric warfare on our democracy with Manchin’s permission and even encouragement,” Hasan said in a segment on-air Sunday. “The West Virginia senator seems to think that his party should be able to get the seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict Trump on board for the For the People Act. But seven is not 10. Even if Democrats could get Manchin’s seven Republican pals to vote for S. 1, it would still not be enough to get past his own beloved 60-vote filibuster threshold.
"Maybe, as I said before on this show, Manchin is just not very bright. Maybe simple math is beyond him. Maybe he doesn’t understand what is happening at a state level. That may be the most charitable explanation,” Hasan added. “I would have loved to have asked him, but he's repeatedly turned us down when it comes to an interview.”
Fox News host Chris Wallace was perhaps more polite, but no less direct, when he had Manchin as a guest and both asked a question of the senator — but made a pointed observation, as well.
“First of all, you have made it clear, and I’m not going to ask you again, you said that you oppose scrapping the filibuster. The question I have is, whether or not — and you say you hope that that will bring the parties together. The question I have is whether or not you’re doing it exactly the wrong way,” Wallace said. “And hear me out on this. If you were to keep the idea that maybe you would vote to kill the filibuster, wouldn’t that give Republicans an incentive to actually negotiate, because old Joe Manchin is out there and who knows what he’s going to do? By taking it off the table, haven’t you empowered Republicans to be obstructionists?”
In response, Manchin returned to his well-worn talking points.
“I don’t think so, because we have seven brave Republicans that continue to vote for what they know is right and the facts as they see them, not worrying about the political consequences. I believe there’s a lot more of my Republican colleagues and friends that feel the same way,” he said. “I’m just hoping they are able to rise to the occasion to defend our country and support our country and make sure that we have a democracy for this republic of all the people. I’m just very hopeful that — and I see good signs.
“We’re doing, Chris, more things than ever before. Give us some time. I know everyone’s putting deadlines, got to be done by this, this and this,” Manchin added.
Wallace, however, continued to press Manchin.
“Well, but wait — but — but let me ask you the final question, sir. I mean let’s just take the idea of creating a 9/11 commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. Republicans blocked that. Sen. McConnell, the head of the Republicans in the Senate, says that he’s 100 percent focused on blocking the Biden agenda,” Wallace said. “Question: Aren’t you being naive about this continuing talk about bipartisan cooperation?”
Manchin replied, “I’m not being naive. I think he’s 100 percent wrong in trying to block all the good things that we’re trying to do for America. It would be a lot better if we had participation. And we’re getting participation. But when it comes time to final vote, and I disagree with — with Leader McConnell on this, the minority leader on this issue, that he puts politics before the policies that I think we need for our country.
“I’m going to continue to keep working with my bipartisan friends and hopefully we can get more of them. I can tell you this. In 2013, at that time Harry Reid, the leader of the majority party, the Democrats, basically [launched] the nuclear option, which did away with the filibuster on appointments and district and circuit judges,” he added. “Come back to 2017, then we had Leader McConnell at that time in the majority and he did away with it for the Supreme Court.
"So what goes around comes around here. They all understand that. And there were 33 Democrats in 2017 that signed a letter to please save the filibuster and save our democracy. That’s what I’m trying to do,” Manchin concluded.