West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin has announced he will not be endorsing Kamala Harris over her pledge to gut the Senate filibuster.
In an interview with CNN, Manchin said Harris’s plan to remove the filibuster to legislate in favor of abortion rights would undermine democracy in America.
“Shame on her,” Manchin said. “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.”
“That ain’t going to happen,” he added on the mention of his endorsing Harris for president. “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 was asked about Harris’s past support for eliminating the filibuster.
“Well, she said she supported banning fracking too, and she changed that,” he responded. “I was hoping she would change this.”
The 77-year-old, who left the Democratic Party and registered as an independent earlier this year and will not be seeking re-election, was previously indicating that he may support Harris over Donald Trump.
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Also weighing in on the issue was Arizona Senator Krysten Sinema, who like Manchin was a staunch supporter of the tactic and also left the Democratic Party, described it as a “terrible, shortsighted idea.”
“To state the supremely obvious, eliminating the filibuster to codify Roe v Wade also enables a future Congress to ban all abortion nationwide,” she wrote. “What an absolutely terrible, shortsighted idea.”
To state the supremely obvious, eliminating the filibuster to codify Roe v Wade also enables a future Congress to ban all abortion nationwide.
What an absolutely terrible, shortsighted idea. https://t.co/ldzTB9BkV7
— Kyrsten Sinema (@kyrstensinema) September 24, 2024
