Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., isn’t a darling of conservatives… except when he’s being a thorn in the side of the far-left Democrats that need him.
He has consistently promised to foil the liberal lawmakers’ agenda since President Joe Biden took office.
This time he’s vowing to kill off the Democrats’ latest project — the For the People Act. The bill is a sweeping attempt to reform the U.S. voting system after the controversial 2020 election.
Manchin revealed his thoughts during an interview segment with ABC News.
This is a major blow to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who vowed to bring the bill onto the Senate floor. And you can be sure, he’s not the only Democrat miffed about Manchin’s refusal to play ball.
Just like in the past, the West Virginia Senator won’t budge to the demands of rank-and-file liberals who want to push the country further left.
According to The Hill reporting, lawmakers spent a grueling session discussing the voting overhaul, and Manchin said it was clear to him that it wouldn’t have the votes necessary to pass — whether he supported it or not.
“No matter what was brought up it was partisan vote, 9-9,” Manchin said. “… it’s not going to be successful I believe.”
“This is one of the most — I think — important things that we can do to try to bring our country back together and if we do it in a partisan way,” he said, “it’s not going to be successful I believe.”
60 votes would be needed to pass the measure so it could be signed by Biden.
Instead, he’s supporting a different measure.
One he says is more popular on both sides of the aisle.
So while he’s intending to curb the radical efforts of his colleagues once again, he is open to a small level of reform that would achieve more bipartisan support. He threw his support behind the John Lewis Voting Act — named after the late civil rights leader and House member who in 2020 passed away.
Manchin believes this bill — and not the radical legislation coming from liberals in his party — is something that lawmakers can actually pass to restore some faith into elections.
I believe Democrats and Republicans feel very strongly about protecting the ballot boxes allowing people to protect the right to vote, making it accessible, making it fair, and making it secure, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, if we apply that to all 50 states and territories, it’s something that can be done — it should be done.
The Horn editorial team