Nolte: Will Joe Manchin Honor Pledge to Stop Democrats from Court-packing, Ending Filibuster?John Nolte 6 Jan 2021
Back in November, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) pledged that if Democrats won control of the U.S. Senate, he would block any attempt to pack the Supreme Court or kill the filibuster.
The context here is crucial. Manchin made this pledge on Fox News right after the presidential election. At that point, it was pretty clear Joe Biden would become president and Democrats would hold the House of Representatives. It was also clear that the then-upcoming January 5 runoffs in Georgia would determine control of the U.S. Senate.
So what Manchin was doing was reassuring everyone that if Democrats won those runoffs and seized control of the Senate (and it now looks as though this has indeed happened), he would be the bulwark against the insanity of packing the Supreme Court and killing the filibuster.
What Manchin said was especially meaningful because all it takes to block that madness in a 50-50 Senate (with incoming Vice President Kamala Harris as the tiebreaker) is Manchin’s one vote.
Here’s Manchin’s full quote, which, as you will see, is unequivocal:
I commit to you tonight, and I commit to all of your viewers and everyone else that’s watching, I want to allay those fears, I want to rest those fears for you right now. Because when they talk about, whether it be packing the courts or ending the filibuster, I will not vote to do that. I will not vote to pack the courts. I think — and I will not vote to end the filibuster. … I will not be the 50th Democrat voting to end that filibuster or to basically stack the court, and in all the other things you’re hearing about, Bret, also, defund the police. I don’t know of any of the Democrats in the caucus that are for defunding the police. We’re not for that whatsoever. And when they talk about basically, Medicare for all, we can’t even pay for Medicare for some. It doesn’t make any sense at all.
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/01/06/nolte-will-joe-manchin-honor-pledge-stop-democrats-court-packing-ending-filibuster/
