A leading Democratic moderate senator has again refrained from former colleague Kamala Harris after the vice president once again voiced her intention to push for a Senate controlled by her party to make it easier to pass a far-left agenda.
Harris recently reaffirmed her commitment to abolishing the Senate filibuster, a long-standing procedural mechanism used to extend debate and obstruct controversial legislation. Harris, aiming to advance a bill that would enshrine abortion rights into law, argues that the filibuster is a significant barrier to progress on critical issues. The filibuster has become a contentious topic in contemporary politics, with Harris’s push to eliminate it sparking strong reactions from both parties. Supporters see her stance as crucial for advancing a progressive agenda, while critics view it as a threat to established Senate traditions.
One notable Senate figure, Joe Manchin (D-WV), had previously indicated a willingness to support Kamala Harris. However, her commitment to abolishing the filibuster has led Manchin, a staunch defender of the procedural rule, to reevaluate his stance. During an interview on Tuesday, the West Virginia senator announced that he would no longer be backing her candidacy, marking a significant setback for Harris.
Manchin, who will retire at the end of the year, criticized his colleague in the Capitol, expressing deep disappointment. “Shame on her,” he said to CNN. “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.”
New — Joe Manchin, a staunch defender of the filibuster, tells us he WON’T endorse Kamala Harris now over her vow to gut the filibuster to codify Roe.
“Shame on her,” Manchin, who is retiring at year’s end, said in the Capitol. “She knows the filibuster is the Holy Grail of…
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) September 24, 2024
“That ain’t going to happen,” Manchin continued. “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.” When questioned about Harris’s previous stance on eliminating the filibuster, Senator Manchin drew a parallel to her earlier position on fracking. “Well, she said she supported banning fracking too, and she changed that. I was hoping she would change this,” Manchin remarked.
In the U.S. Senate, filibusters can be extended indefinitely unless 60 senators vote for a “cloture” motion to end the debate and proceed to a vote. This makes the filibuster a powerful tool for a minority of senators aiming to influence or obstruct legislation. Kamala Harris recently advocated for eliminating the filibuster for abortion-related legislation, allowing such bills to pass with a simple majority of 51 votes rather than the typical 60.
“I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe,” Harris said Tuesday morning. “And get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do.”
It’s notable to mention that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2022 overturning Roe did not ban abortion but rather returned the issue to the states where it had been until the landmark 1973 high court ruling that created a federal protection for the procedure. Governing medical choices and other decisions between a patient and their health care provider is nowhere in the Constitution; the 10th Amendment makes clear that anything authorities not specifically granted to the federal government under the nation’s founding document are the purview of state and local governments.
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.