Citation
From the June 7, 2021, edition of Real America's Voice's The Water Cooler
DAVID BRODY (HOST): Let's start with Manchin. He's become like, I don't know, the Mitt Romney of the Democrat Party — progressives, I mean, they can't, they can't stand him, Rick.
RICK KLEIN: Yeah, this is now at a boiling point and this was a surprise that he put out the op-ed saying he would not eliminate the filibuster, would not support H.R. 1, the voting rights bill that is the top Democratic priority that you mentioned. It wasn't, though, surprise that he took these positions. I think the timing, though, can't be lost on anyone. It's barely a week ago that Kamala Harris took on this new portfolio trying to to pass voting rights legislation. And this means it's dead. H.R. 1 is not going to happen as long as Joe Manchin opposes it and he is against it. I think for some intriguing reasons, David, that matter for the Republican agenda. He actually, in an op-ed, didn't cite any policy objections. What he said is, though, because this is such a hot-button issue, you need to have Republican buy-in. So it's bipartisanship itself that's lacking and until then, unless you get that Manchin not moving and that, again, seals the fate of H.R. 1.
BRODY: You make a really good point, Rick, about this, because it shouldn't come as any shock. I mean, maybe the timing and the fact that he put in an op-ed like this and, you know, but but the truth of the matter is they've been working on Manchin for weeks, and Sinema, for that matter, and it's been going nowhere and they can't get anywhere.
KLEIN: Yeah. And I think this was an attempt by Senator Manchin just to put a nail in that and say, I'm not budging. And he's been saying it for months and months and months and as many different ways as you can about about not just H.R. 1, but the broader issue about whether he would eliminate the Senate filibuster. It's not going anywhere. And, you know, we talk a lot about bipartisanship as if it's some some luxury or choice that Biden is engaging in. The fact is, unless every Democratic senator is is on board for everything that Biden is doing, he needs bipartisanship. And this underscores that point. If you don't even have all the Democrats on board, then you're not — good luck trying to get some Republicans. But that's why you see the dance that's been going on around infrastructure — voting rights, civil rights, all these issues are not going to move until or unless you get at least some Republican buy-in.
BRODY: Well, this seems to have a direct tie-in to the legislative filibuster. This idea — I mean, if Manchin is a no on this, we know he doesn't want to change the filibuster. We know Sinema has come out just, what, last week and said the same thing. I know they're working on both of them, but it does seem that things like D.C. statehood, the Equality Act, and you go down the list will all be dead if the legislative filibuster doesn't change. And, so, I'm assuming this is also going to be dead regarding the legislative filibuster as well, though, no one really thought it was going to go anywhere in the first place.
KLEIN: Yeah. And look, this is the reality of a 50-50 Senate. Every one senator can be a majority maker or majority breaker. And in this case, Senator Manchin putting this firm stand on on the issue of the filibuster, takes it off the table for all intents and purposes. And similarly, any legislation that he opposes. And again, what he is saying is go find some Republicans and then we can talk. I think there'll be more attention to the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which is more modest in its in its scope, but still an important Democratic priority. Senator Manchin indicated he's open to supporting that and there could be Republican support for it. But they're going to have to — the Democrats are going to have to regroup on voting rights at the very least.
BRODY: Rick, one last question on Manchin. I want to read you just a small portion of the op-ed in the Charleston Gazette Mail. This is how he explained his reasoning behind the decision. He said, quote, I believe the partisan voting legislation will destroy the already weakened, weakening bins of our democracy. For that reason, I will vote against The For The People Act. Furthermore, I will not vote to weaken or eliminate the filibuster. So we did actually talk about the filibuster as well. I guess you just wonder this tap dance or this dance between progressives and people like Manchin, even Biden, obviously Biden too really at the top of all of this because Biden said he was going to be the unifier in chief, but to push a legislative filibuster, to push H.R. 1, which is controversial, I mean, it's not just straight up voting rights legislation. It would federalize elections, that that doesn't feel very unifying, and I wonder if this is going to come back to backfire, not only from a progressive standpoint against Biden, but in a midterm election that Republicans smell political blood.
KLEIN: Well, two points I'd make, David. One is that if Democrats feel like Manchin is a problem, he can make their lives pretty easy by becoming a Republican. He'd probably be reelected to life in West Virginia if he did that. He doesn't want to do that. And Democrats, I think, have to recognize at some level he's maybe the only Democrat on Earth who could carry the state of West Virginia and be United States senator as a Democrat from West Virginia. So they have to make sure that they respect what he does and how his state is received is one of the reddest states in the US. The other the other point is that is the reality for the foreseeable future. And the Democrats have to at least recognize that change, their perceptions a little bit around this and progressives, they don't like hearing it — too bad. This is this is how it is. And it may be that Manchin is kind of a blessing in disguise for Biden in the sense that you point out he is going to be restraining some of the more progressive impulses inside the party, as long as Manchin is standing up against things, including this rewrite of voting laws, that that prevents the Democrats from going as far as they'd otherwise like to. And Biden, of course, would rather get wins than losses legislatively on voting rights and a whole lot of other issues. But it means that the centrists, Manchin and Sinema, chief among them, are going to be holding back the Democrats in terms of what they can actually accomplish.