Vice President Kamala Harris called for eliminating the filibuster on Tuesday during an appearance on Wisconsin Public Radio.
“I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe,” Harris said on WPR. “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.”
This is not the first time that Harris has called for the elimination of the filibuster. When she campaigned in 2020, she backed ending it to pass the Green New Deal.
Kamala Harris says if Congress does not pass the $93 trillion Green New Deal that she will take over the Senate as President and eliminate the filibuster to ram the agenda through
The Green New Deal's creator said it was created to implement socialism, not help the environment pic.twitter.com/k0tONTOUok
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) September 4, 2019
The fallout from her statement was swift.
“The consequences of losing right now are profound because, if we don’t take back the majority and the Democrats are in charge, they will blow up the filibuster,” National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines (R-MT) told Breitbart News. “That’s their strategy. We cannot let them succeed, and that’s why we have to get at least 51 Republicans in the United States Senate in January of 2025.”
Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV), a former Democrat, said on Tuesday that he's not endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
This came after Manchin rejected Harris's support for ending the Senate filibuster to pass federal abortion protections, a move that Manchin said would… pic.twitter.com/BJNMFrLV9w
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 24, 2024
Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV), an Independent who still caucuses with Democrats, said that he would no longer support Harris for president following her comments.
CNN reports on Manchin’s decision. Here’s the start of the story:
Vice President Kamala Harris’ vow to gut the Senate’s filibuster rule to pass a bill codifying abortion rights has cost her an endorsement from a leading Senate moderate: Joe Manchin.
The West Virginia independent, one of the staunchest defenders of the potent delay tactic in the Senate, told CNN on Tuesday that he wouldn’t back her candidacy now — despite signaling earlier this month he was getting ready to do so.
“Shame on her,” Manchin, who is retiring at year’s end, said in the Capitol. “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.”
Now that Harris has vowed to gut the filibuster on this issue, Manchin said he wouldn’t back her for president.
“That ain’t going to happen,” he said. “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, a former Democrat who registered as an independent earlier this year, said he still hasn’t spoken to Harris despite his attempts to do so.
