Over the weekend, West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin said he would vote against a sweeping voting rights bill and that he is against getting rid of the filibuster. His op-ed in his home state Charleston Gazette-Mail explained that he was opposed to the “For the People Act” because, in part, it is not bipartisan.
It is a devastating blow to Democrats, who needed Manchin’s support and have seen voting rights as a major priority of the Biden administration. Reaction to Manchin’s decision was swift and powerful.
The headline on Chris Cillizza’s column for CNN was “Joe Manchin just *totally* screwed Democrats.”
Cillizza wrote, “Manchin’s both-sides-are-to-blame argument hands Republicans a perfect talking point to use against Democrats. Even your own party didn't sign on because it was a ‘partisan’ bill — and other similar arguments.”
Cillizza added, “The worst part of all of this for Democrats? Manchin is effectively un-punishable. His state is overwhelmingly Republican and even the senator's biggest detractors admit that no other Democrat could hold the seat for their side.”
In a column for The Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin wrote, “Manchin’s bland platitudes suggest he prefers stalemate to taking hard votes. The status quo leaves him with latitude to make holier-than-thou pronouncements to decry both sides.”
She added, “The time for Manchin’s excuse-mongering is over. It is time to demonstrate his bipartisan notions are more than fantasy. And if he cannot, he needs to choose his legacy: He either ushers in democracy’s demise or refuses to allow Republicans to dismantle democracy before our eyes. That’s certainly the only thing for which he’ll be remembered.”
During an appearance on CNN, New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman compared Manchin to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Bowman told John Berman on “New Day,” “Joe Manchin has become the new Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell during Obama’s presidency said he would do everything in his power to stop (Obama). He’s also repeated that now during the Biden presidency by saying he would do everything in his power to stop President Biden, and now Joe Manchin is doing everything in his power to stop democracy and to stop our work for the people, the work that the people sent us here to do. Manchin is not pushing us closer to bipartisanship. He is doing the work of the Republican Party by being an obstructionist, just like they’ve been since the beginning of Biden’s presidency.”
In fact, former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, on his “War Room” podcast, said, “I actually believe there should be a major effort led by guys like (Florida Sen.) Rick Scott to bring Joe Manchin into the Republican Party right now. Bring him into the Republican Party, make sure that he’s a welcome member of the Republican Party."
More conservative voices, of course, praised Manchin.
During an appearance on Fox News, former President Donald Trump said, “Well, it’s a very important thing. He’s doing the right thing and it’s a very important thing. Otherwise you’re going to be packing the court. You’re going to be doing all sorts of very, very bad things that were unthinkable and were never even brought up during the election. Nobody brought this stuff up.”
The headline on Justin Haskins’ column for The HIll was “By rejecting Democrats’ election overhaul bill, Joe Manchin may have saved America.”
Meanwhile, The Atlantic’s Jemele Hill had the strongest criticism of all with this tweet:
“This is so on brand for this country. Record number of black voters show up to save this democracy, only for white supremacy to be upheld by a cowardly, power-hungry white dude. @Sen_JoeManchin is a clown.”
MSNBC president Rashida Jones: ‘I was constantly underestimated’
The Daily Beast’s Lloyd Grove has a good profile of MSNBC president Rashida Jones, who told Grove, “When I was in school, I was always the only Black person in my class, and I was constantly underestimated. I constantly made honor roll. I was constantly the best writer with the best handwriting, the best at math. And I think people just assumed certain things — not only because of who I was and where I lived, and they didn’t know us — and constantly proving people wrong, by actions, not by words, is just something I’ve always kept in mind, and I’ve always operated that way.”
Jones, who took over the network in February, talked about her vision for MSNBC.
She told Grove, “The strategy is really doubling down on differentiating between our hard-news programming and our perspectives programming.”
Jones continued: “We very much want to be the place where people go for hard news when news is happening. … CNN has the reputation for being the place to go for hard news, and it’s something we’re continuously chipping away at. I think what you’re seeing is that we punch above our weight.”
From real life to the big screen
