Rachel Maddow lit into Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and shredded him for opposing expanded background checks after his “bipartisan” way already flopped.
Video:
Sen. Joe Manchin gets torn apart by Rachel Maddow for blocking filibuster reform and gun legislation, even after failing when he tried to do his way. #Maddow pic.twitter.com/cALLYQ82Nd
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) March 24, 2021
Maddow said:
We have to act. But he’s talking to the United States Senate there. And Joe Manchin, the senator from West Virginia, he will not ask, even after the humiliation and what he dragged the country through in 2013. Manchin reiterated that he doesn’t support background checks for all gun sales, which is something that has already passed the House. It passed the house even with some Republican support, which means Joe Manchin is to the right of Republicans. If he alone changed his mind on this and decided that he really does care about this, that actually probably would be enough to get that one reform over the finish line, which if he changed his stance on the bill itself, if he found it in his heart to support background checks, given that, and his stamps on keeping the filibuster rule in place, so that majority votes don’t count even for his own legislation, Joe Manchin holds the fate of this in his hands.
He promised this was an issue that moved him, in tears, as a parent, as a grandparent, he promised that he could get it done. He could get it done, actually, now. If he wanted to. I mean, even now, with the NRA almost dissolved in disgrace and in bankruptcy, instead of doing what he says he wants to do, he will do what the NRA wants instead. Not even the NRA’s members want that, but Joe Manchin does. Because of that, he personally will stop the whole country from getting any substantive relief from this thing that plagues us still.
It will likely almost certainly come down again to whatever the president now President Biden can do on his own without Congress, which is not much. And that is because the United States Senate does not work, even for things more than 90% of the country wants done, even things that tear our hearts this much, and even when we seem to agree on anything else, the senate does not work in large part because of Democrats like Joe Manchin. Because of that, we can’t do anything substantive as a country on this issue. Despite senators like Joe Manchin saying this means a lot to them.
Rachel Maddow called out Joe Manchin’s basic hypocrisy in claiming to support expanded background checks, but it turns out he will only support them if the bill passes his way, which is a bipartisan fantasy land that does not exist in the United States Senate.
Democrats don’t like it, but the truth is that the only thing separating them from Mitch McConnell becoming Senate Majority Leader tomorrow is Joe Manchin remaining in the Democratic Party.
Maddow was right to call Manchin out for his obvious issue inconsistency on gun legislation.
Does Joe Manchin really want bipartisanship, or does he want Republican cover so that he can keep his Senate seat in West Virginia?
Callously setting America up for more mass shootings and deaths in exchange for potential political survival is not a good look, and it is really something that Joe Manchin needs to think about.
Mr. Easley is the founder/managing editor, who is White House Press Pool, and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
