Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) were both on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper Sunday to talk about bipartisanship.
They covered a variety of topics.
Manchin reiterated for anyone who didn’t get the message yet that Build Back Better – as conceived – was dead, “that bill no longer will exist.” He’s already made it very clear, but some Democrats have refused delivery on his refusal. He said his main objection to it was that it didn’t have Republican Senatorial Committee input on it.
While talking, the two politicians had a moment that is surely going to tick off the Democrats. Manchin said that he would be “endorsing my dear friend, Lisa Murkowski.”
“She knows I feel that way, too, very strongly,” Manchin told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “It’s hypocritical to basically work with a person day in and day out, and then when they’re in cycle you’re supposed to be against them just because they have an R or D by their name. If these are good people I’ve worked with, we have accomplished a lot, why in the world wouldn’t I want to work with them and continue to work with them?
“It doesn’t matter if I’m a Democrat, and they’re a Republican, or vice versa,” he added. “They’ve been my dear friends, we get a lot accomplished and I think the country has fared better with us working together than not.”
Manchin, one of the few moderates in his party, made a similar move in 2020 when he endorsed and offered to campaign for Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.
It’s anticipated that Murkowski will be in a tough fight in the next election. She is being primaried by multiple candidates including a Trump-endorsed Republican, Kelly Tshibaka, a former commissioner of the Alaska Department of Administration. Sarah Palin has also suggested she may be interested. So, Murkowski may face some real trouble. She may not even get to the general election with a Democrat. There is no declared Democratic candidate yet. But this doubtless will infuriate Democrats that he’s endorsing a weak Republican who could very well be taken out.
They also talked about the Electoral Count Act. Now, it’s not clear how that would be written up or shaken out, but anything that Democrats are pushing with their efforts to grab power has to be a concern, especially if they want to overturn existing laws. He says they have 15 or 20 people.
Tapper then pushed Murkowski about ‘voting rights,’ where she should have said that there is no threat to voting rights posed by Republican bills. But Murkowski being Murkowski, she didn’t say that. She just talked about issues that she thought they could come together on, including things like protecting election workers. Everyone would want that. But knock down the lies being pushed by Democrats. She didn’t even make the effort.
Finally, Manchin spoke about how he was “an American first.” This is how every senator and representative should feel; unfortunately, he is rare among Democrats in thinking this, it seems.