Representative Jamaal Bowman: Joe Manchin Is "The New Mitch McConnell

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Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 01:32 pm

Representative Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) criticized Senator Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) after it emerged that Manchin would vote against an election reform bill crucial to the Democratic agenda. Bowman said Manchin is “doing everything in his power to stop democracy.”

Bowman further compared Manchin and his tactics to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, whom he considers an obstructionist. Indeed, McConnell has made it clear that he has made it a personal mission of his to block as much legislation proposed by Democrats as possible.

“Joe Manchin has become the new Mitch McConnell,” Bowman said. “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,” he said.

“And now Joe Manchin is doing everything in his power to stop democracy and to stop our work for the people,” he continued, adding: “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.”

You can watch Bowman’s interview below.

"Joe Manchin has become the new Mitch McConnell," Rep. Jamaal Bowman says as the West Virginia senator tanks Democrats' hopes of going it alone on their sweeping agenda.

"He's doing the work of the Republican Party by being an obstructionist."https://t.co/E5XYuYSBcr pic.twitter.com/9uFZhNBWfc

— CNN This Morning (@CNNThisMorning) June 7, 2021

Manchin made clear he would not vote for H.R.1, the For the People Act of 2021, decrying it as a “partisan” bill.

“Today’s debate about how to best protect our right to vote and to hold elections, however, is not about finding common ground, but seeking partisan advantage,” he wrote in an op-ed for the Charleston Gazette-Mail. “Whether it is state laws that seek to needlessly restrict voting or politicians who ignore the need to secure our elections, partisan policymaking won’t instill confidence in our democracy — it will destroy it.”