Joe Manchin open to making filibuster ‘more painful’

Sen. Joe Manchin, the reasonable West Virginia Democrat whose vote has change into crucial within the evenly divided Senate, expressed some openness to reforming the filibuster on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” Sunday.

“If you want to make it a little bit more painful, make him stand there and talk, I’m willing to look at any way we can. But I’m not willing to take away the involvement of the minority,” Manchin stated.

The reasonable Democrat has repeatedly stated he is not going to vote to abolish the filibuster, a procedural quirk of the Senate that requires at the very least 60 senators to vote to finish debate on any laws earlier than it may be voted on. The filibuster has been used more and more over the previous few a long time because the nation’s two more and more polarized events have been unable to compromise on most main coverage questions.

During the interview, Manchin expressed openness to the thought of implementing a “talking filibuster,” the place any senator would find a way to halt proceedings in the event that they had been bodily current on the ground of the Senate. Once the senator stopped talking, a easy majority vote would find a way to finish debate.

“And now if you want to make it a little bit more painful, make him stand there and talk, I’m willing to look at any way we can,” Manchin stated of potential reforms to the filibuster. Other reasonable Democratic senators who’ve additionally expressed openness to an identical reform embrace Sen. John Tester, D-Mont., and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.

Manchin once more burdened that he stays opposed to abolishing the filibuster, which he sees as selling bipartisan cooperation. “Can you imagine not having to sit down, where there’s no reason for you to sit down with your colleagues on both sides and have their input?” the senator requested.

“I’ve been in the minority. I’ve been in the majority. And I can tell you the respect I have on both sides when I’ve been there should be ‘I’ve got something to say, listen to me,’ and I want that to happen,” Manchin stated.

– Matthew Brown

Defense Secretary Austin: US will ‘strike if that’s what we predict we want to do’

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was agency in his assist for U.S. army intervention in conditions the army believes such strikes are vital throughout a dialogue Sunday of current retaliatory strikes in Iraq after U.S. and Iraqi forces had been attacked by rockets.

“We want to make sure that again, we understand who’s responsible for this. The message to those who would carry out such an attack is you know expect us to do what’s necessary to defend ourselves,” Austin stated on ABC News’ “This Week.”

While Austin stated the Pentagon and Iraqi investigators had been nonetheless gathering intelligence on who was liable for the strikes, the U.S. wouldn’t maintain again army drive if American troops had been endangered.

“We’ll strike if that’s what we think we need to do at a time and place of our own choosing. We demand the right to protect our troops,” Austin emphasised.

Austin, the primary Black protection secretary to preside over the armed forces, has highlighted combatting extremism within the army and repositioning the army to fight nationwide safety threats like cyberwarfare, local weather change and the rise of China as prime considerations.

“China’s been busy modernizing its military and developing capabilities, and trying to close the competitive edge that we’ve always enjoyed,” Austin stated. “They’ve also been very aggressive in the region. In some cases, they’ve been coercive and some of that coercion has been directed against our allies, and our allies are very important to us.”

– Matthew Brown

Sens. Ossoff and Warnock credit score Georgia voters for $1.9T aid package deal

Georgia Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock – two Democrats elected in Jan. 5 runoffs in what was as soon as thought of a Republican stronghold – held a press convention hours after the Senate narrowly authorized a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid package deal in a 50-49 vote that fell alongside celebration traces.

Both senators made it clear that the package deal would seemingly have by no means come to move with out their upset victories.

“This is the most significant economic relief package for working- and middle-class families in American history,” Ossoff advised reporters after the vote. “We will crush COVID-19, recover economically, safely re-open our schools, and get our daily lives back – and we’ll do it thanks to Georgia voters.”

Warnock agreed.

“There is not any query that the individuals of Georgia deserve quite a lot of credit score for what occurred right here at present,” he said. “We merely wouldn’t be right here had they not stood up in such a profound means on this historic election.”

– Sarah Elbeshbishi

‘One more giant step forward’: President Biden praises passage of COVID plan

President Joe Biden praised the Senate’s passage of his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan on Saturday, calling it “yet another big step ahead” on promises he made on the campaign trail to send aid to millions of Americans suffering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Today I can say we have taken yet another big step ahead in delivering on the promise assistance is on the way in which,” he said of his package that includes $1,400 relief checks, an extension of federal unemployment benefits, and billions of dollars for vaccine development and distribution.

“The backside line is that this: this plan places us on a path to beating this virus,” he said.

Biden made an indirect reference to his predecessor President Donald Trump, saying passing the relief plan would show how he was “going to get the federal government out of the enterprise of battling on Twitter and back in the business of delivering for the American people.”

He congratulated Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for shepherding the bill through the Senate. The chamber worked for more than 27 straight hours as it made its final deliberations on the package.

“I’ve by no means seen anybody work as skillfully, as ably, as patiently with willpower to ship such a consequential piece of laws,” Biden said.

The president had been in touch with several Democratic senators throughout the process.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., a longtime Biden confidante, told reporters Saturday morning he had spoken to Biden, who had told him he was “actually glad” the bill passed. The president had been in touch with Schumer with “some frequency” through the whole process, Coons said.

– Nicholas Wu and Joey Garrison

‘Dinner desk’ politics:Why Joe Biden ditched bipartisan dealmaking to pass his COVID-19 relief bill

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