Democrat leaders on Wednesday asked the radical left to quit attacking Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) over his opposition to an election takeover bill and filibuster cancelation.
Politico Playbook reported:
As Manchin remains a holdout on S. 1, Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER is telling outside groups not to try to bully Manchin, but to instead focus on the historical and factual arguments related to the legislation, according to sources familiar with his remarks.
Playbook also wrote House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (R-CA) cautioned members “in a private meeting Monday night” to not “vilify individual senators on the issue (elections takeover bill), according to several people who attended,” likely “referring to Manchin, the only Senate Democrat to publicly announce his opposition to S. 1.”
Far-left congress members have “unleashed” anger at Manchin for tanking their agenda thus far, forcing them to either come to the negotiating table in a bipartisan fashion or fail President Joe Biden’s hopes for a win he can champion.
For example, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) tweeted his far-left view of Manchin by accusing Manchin of being the “new Mitch McConnell.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) also let fly, saying she “doesn’t ‘buy’ Manchin’s calls for bipartisanship on voting matters and speculated that his opposition is more likely tied to his wariness of Democrats’ effort to rein in dark money.”
Manchin said in March he feels comfortable throwing a wrench into the radical Democrats’ fast-moving laundry list of legislative items, telling the New York Times, “What are they [Democrats] going to do? They going to go into West Virginia and campaign against me? Please, that would help me more than anything.”
Manchin principally stands in the way of the Senate lifting the filibuster, which maintains a 60 vote threshold needed to pass legislation, such as the federal elections takeover bill.
Manchin’s linchpin position is being eroded by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has received permission from the Senate parliamentarian to use a tactic called reconciliation to enact budget-related items.
“We need big, bold action. That’s what America needs. We want to do as much of that as we can in a bipartisan way, and we’re proceeding to do that,” Schumer said.