Manchin won’t endorse Harris over vow to gut filibuster to codify abortion rights: ‘Shame on her’

By Manu Raju, Ted Barrett and Sam Fossum, CNN

Washington (CNN) — 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.

Asked about Harris’ past support for gutting the filibuster, Manchin said: “Well, she said she supported banning fracking too, and she changed that. I was hoping she would change this.”

Manchin’s comments come in the wake of Harris telling Wisconsin Public Radio this week, “We should eliminate the filibuster for Roe.”

Doing so would lower the threshold from 60 votes to a simple majority of 51 to advance legislation to protect abortion rights.

Defenders of the filibuster say preserving the tool forces consensus in the body, unlike in the House of Representatives, where legislation can be rammed through by a majority vote. But critics say the tactic has been abused to prevent the Senate from acting on legislation backed by large swaths of the American public.

Senate GOP Whip John Thune attacked Harris over her filibuster comments and vowed to preserve the delay tactic if he is elected as majority leader.

With Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stepping down, Thune is one of the three Senate Republicans running for his perch atop the Senate GOP.

“I think they’re willing to change the filibuster over a whole range of issues,” Thune said of the Democrats. “That’s the problem,” adding they have a list of legislation they want to “pass at 51 votes in the Senate, which undermines not only the Senate but the country which is designed to protect minority rights. Once they do it there, they will do it on everything.”

When asked by CNN whether he would change the filibuster on any issue if he was majority leader, Thune said: “No.”

Sen. Bob Casey, a vulnerable Pennsylvania Democrat, told CNN Tuesday that he supports Harris’ push in order to pass abortion legislation.

“I think it makes sense to change the rule,” Casey said, adding that it’s his belief Democrats should do away with the requirement to address a whole host of policy issues they care about.

“Well, I’ll just say what I believe. I believe for a long time that the 60-vote rule has been an impediment to progress on a whole host of fronts, including voting rights, which we tried to pass in 2022,” he continued. “And in the process of trying to pass the bill, we tried to change the rule. So we can pass voting rights. I think the same is true for women’s rights, workers’ rights, so common sense gun measures to reduce gun violence. So on a whole host of fronts.”

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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