say is we need to work with republicans to get some other package through, whether that s the john lewis legislation or another voting rights package. i think that s what they will say, all say it s a good meeting and they ll be in the same position they were before. i mean, you remember, joe manchin wrote an op-ed saying all of this just days ago. so i don t expect his position to change. yeah. it s important point. it was not an off hand comment in the hallway. don t typically walk back very carefully considered and published opinion pieces. jake sherman of punch bowl news, thank you for being up early with us. we appreciate having you. a totally different title for jeff bezos as the amazon ceo looks to add astronaut to his resume. way too early back in just a moment.
package on only democrat votes, not now and perhaps not ever and he said it needs to be done on a bipartisan basis. the sub headline is progressives including those protesting the president. you push me to be someone i m not. to back away from the filibuster and support the voting rights package. manchin said he is not going to change. here s what he told me. i represent the state of west virginia. that s who hired me. i represent them the best possible fashion i can. and i am not not going to get in a situation where i m placating to different people that want different things why it is my state and the people. i m not changing. so for them to expect me to be different than i m not, it s not who i am. reporter: now, you hear it there. manchin s stance on the filibuster, the voting rights package makes progressives want
before you know it. i think that s exactly right. you look at things coming down the pike in congress, the infrastructure bill, whether or not they can do a deal on police reform, which tim scott indicated needs to be settle in the june. whether or not there s on changing gun rules. the voting rights package i mentioned. all of these things are teed up for potential success for democrats and for the administration if they can get there, and i think this goes back to the frustration with manchin. in theory these things are easier to do if you want to get rid of the filibuster, but manchin as reticence on that and infrastructure tells me the democrats don t have 50 votes, much less 60. that s the hardball politics. the coalition for democrats is incredibly small. they only have a four-vote margin in the house, too. and all it takes is a couple progressive member there is
continue to negotiate with the white house. on the voting rights package that s a different question. i said what do you say to folks in texas passing these voting rights restrictions? he said basically, keep working. we ll work up here in a bipartisan way. i keep going back to this but there s a freelance element to being the last democrat standing in a very red state. manchin will trust his gut here. and you know, it s called politics and doesn t georgia but that s the way he sees it but it could make him a lonely person on capitol hill if we get to that point and we talk about the filibuster. there s another joe in washington that doesn t want to get rid of the filibuster and that s the president of the united states joe biden and as long as he stays on the side of the argument it provides coverage for joe manchin to stay
begging manchin to be involved in this, to be the 50th vote, potentially, for the voting rights package. as you heard him say there, he s just not willing to do that unless it can be done bipartisan, and the other republican who said she would support this is lisa murkowski which doesn t get you there. if they don t pass the voting rights law quickly, it will be damaging. does manchin understand that he would be the guy responsible for that generational failure, potentially, if he doesn t budge on this issue? he understands that. he was a former secretary of state here in west virginia, so he understands the voting rights issue broadly here. but this is one of those where he goes back to saying he s going to represent his state and he wants to see these things done on a bipartisan basis.