Mitch McConnell Is Crushing Joe Manchin's Bipartisan Fantasies
A mere two days after Joe Manchin expressed confidence that Republicans would work with Democrats on voting rights legislation and that meaningful compromise was still possible in this bitterly polarized Washington, Mitch McConnell shot down the West Virginia senator’s bipartisan dreams.
First, McConnell announced that he would not support the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which Manchin and Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski have urged lawmakers to reauthorize. Manchin in an op-ed Sunday wrote that he opposed the For the People Act, the Democrats’ best opportunity to expand voting rights and protect the franchise from GOP broadsides, because it did not have GOP support—but said that he backed reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act and that he was was “encouraged by the desire from both sides” to do so. But McConnell, setting the tone for the rest of his caucus, made clear that this bill wouldn’t have Republican support, either: “There’s no threat to the voting rights law,” McConnell told reporters. “I think it’s unnecessary.”
Manchin has been bested by McConnell before. In 2013, he expressed confidence in a gun control compromise he reached with Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey—only for his moderate reforms to fall short of the 60-vote threshold in what then-President Barack Obama described as a “shameful day” in Washington. And just last month, Manchin seemed taken aback when McConnell and the Republicans defeated legislation to establish a 9/11-style commission to investigate the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill. But it’s baffling that he appeared surprised: Why would the party responsible for the riot want it to be subject to a robust and independent inquiry?
The same is true of the voting rights legislation Republicans are poised to block, despite Manchin’s insistence that he can deliver 10 GOP votes to reauthorize the John Lewis bill: The party actively trying to roll back voting rights is not going to do anything to help protect them. Manchin’s inability to see that has already weighed down Democrats’ efforts to govern—and it’s only going to get worse as they move on big-ticket priorities that McConnell has preemptively condemned as “extreme left-wing provisions.” “As you look toward what [Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer] has in mind for June,” McConnell told reporters Tuesday, “it’s pretty clear the era of bipartisanship is over.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/06/mitch-mcconnell-is-crushing-joe-manchins-bipartisan-fantasies
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Such an unexpected surprise!
