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Manchin says he won't vote for Democrats' sweeping election reform bill

06 June 2021
Dan Ackermann

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) wrote in a Charleston Gazette-Mail op-ed Sunday that he will not support congressional Democrats' expansive election and anti-corruption bill, suggesting the measure is partisan.

Why it matters: Manchin's opposition to H.R. 1, known as the For the People Act, puts the bill in tenuous footing in the evenly split Senate. The West Virginia senator said any elections-related legislation should be the result of both parties coming together.

  • “I believe that partisan voting legislation will destroy the already weakening blinds of our democracy, and for that reason, I will vote against the For The People Act," Manchin wrote.
  • "The truth, I would argue, is that voting and election reform that is done in a partisan manner will all but ensure partisan divisions continue to deepen."

Flashback: The House passed the For the People Act in a 220-210 in March with no Republican support, it now awaits a vote in the Senate.

  • The bill's reforms include allowing voters to register securely online or on Election Day, and preventing voter purges from registration records. It would also restore voting rights for felons, expand early and absentee voting and set national standards for early voting and registration.

Manchin said he would support another reform bill, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would effectively reinstate key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that were gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013.

  • "I continue to engage with my Republican and Democratic colleagues about the value of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and I am encouraged by the desire from both sides to transcend partisan politics and strengthen our democracy by protecting voting rights."

Worth noting: Manchin reiterated that he won't support eliminating the fillibuster, and said some Democrats have tried "to demonize the filibuster and conveniently ignore how it has been critical to protecting the rights of Democrats in the past."

Go deeper:Progressive groups press Senate Democrats to abolish filibuster

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.