Jim Clyburn, the House’s majority whip, said Sunday he intends to give Joe Manchin a lesson in American history as he tries to pave a way for Joe Biden on voting rights and infrastructure.
Manchin, a moderate Democratic senator from West Virginia, has emerged as a major obstacle to the president’s ambitious proposals, insisting he will not vote to reform or end the filibuster of the Senate, which requires a super-majority to pass legislation, to allow important measures. by the 50-50 chamber on ordinary majority basis.
His position praised the Republicans: Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Senate minority, praised Manchin as the politician “who keeps the Senate almost single-handedly”.
But Democrats seem to be losing patience – and no one is louder than Clyburn.
“I’m going to remind the senator exactly why the Senate came into being,” Clyburn, of South Carolina, told CNN’s State of the Union, refreshing criticism of Manchin, which includes him feeling “insulted” by his refusal. to fully embrace. suffrage reform.
“The Senate has not always been an election office. The moment we change and make it a choice office [was because] the people thought a change had to be made.
‘The same goes for the filibuster. The filibuster is set up to expand debate and give time to bring people to a standpoint. The filibuster was never set up to oppress voters. It was there to make sure that minorities in this country have constitutional rights and are not denied. ”
Clyburn attacked Manchin for promoting a two-pronged approach to suffrage and refusing to endorse the For the People Act, a measure passed by the US House and intended to counter restrictive voting laws on minorities led by Republicans proposed in 47 states and accepted in Georgia last month. .
‘You’re going to say that it’s more important to you to protect 50 Republicans in the Senate than to protect your fellow Democratic seat in Georgia? It’s a lot of rubbish, ‘Clyburn told Huffpost this month, referring to Senator Raphael Warnock’s 2022 re-election campaign, which supporters believe has become much more difficult as a result of the new voting laws.
On Sunday, Clyburn also intervened in history to reiterate his assertion that Georgia law is “the new Jim Crow,” an assertion that Biden reiterated, but which Republicans say is unfair.
“When we first determined who was entitled to vote and who was not,” Clyburn said, “they were property owners. They knew that people of color, people who come from slavery, do not own property.
“… And then they leave disqualifiers. And they choose the transgressions that are more appropriate to be committed by colored people to disqualify voters.
‘The whole history in the south of the composition of voters is based on the practices and experiences of people based on their race. So, I would say to anyone, ‘Come on, just look at the history … and you’ll know that what’s going on today is a new Jim Crow. It’s just that simple. ”
Despite the insistence of Clyburn and others, Manchin remains steadfast in his belief that duality is Biden’s best way to implement his agenda. In a CNN interview last week, the senator said that the January 6 uprising at the US Capitol “changed” me and said he wanted to use his power as a swinging vote in the 50-50 Senate ‘to ‘Make a difference’ by working with Republicans and Democrats.
“Something said to me, ‘Wait a minute.’ Pause. Press the pause button. Something’s wrong. You can not get so many people divided over where they want to go to war with each other, ” he said as he watched a riot attempted by Donald Trump supporters to destroy his election defeat on the grounds that it was through voter fraud. caused. – a lie without legal prestige.
Manchin said he had a good relationship with the White House and wanted to meet Warnock and Georgia’s other Democratic senator, Jon Ossoff, to discuss voting rights.
Clyburn said Sunday the riot also had a “tremendous effect” on him.
‘When I saw the Capitol policeman complain about how many times he was called the N-word by those people, who were insurgents out there, when I saw [the civil rights leader] “John Lewis ‘picture torn to pieces and scattered on the floor, which told me everything I need to know about the insurgents, and I will remind everyone who thinks on January 6 to think about these issues as well,’ he said.
Clyburn was one of the first big figures Biden endorsed last year.
The congressman has Biden’s ear and promised in an interview with the Guardian in December to keep pressure on his friend to keep a promise in his victory speech addressed to African Americans: “They always have my back, and I will have yours. “
“I think he will do it,” Clyburn said. “I’m definitely going to work hard to make sure he remembers saying that.”