4 DAYS REMAINING IN THE 2024 ALABAMA LEGISLATIVE SESSION

Tuberville praises Democratic colleague Joe Manchin — ‘He saved this country when he voted against busting the filibuster’

This week, a draft opinion of the Supreme Court leaked that says the majority of the court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. Because of this, many Democratic members of Congress are calling for abortion protections to be passed by Congress and codified into law.

An abortion bill would have a tough time passing the Senate because the Democratic Party doesn’t currently hold a filibuster-proof majority.

While there were attempts to abolish the filibuster rule in the Senate earlier this year, that attempt was ultimately blocked by two Democrats voting along with Republicans to keep the rule in place. Those two Democratic lawmakers were Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.).

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) said Wednesday there was no way Manchin would change his mind and vote to abolish the filibuster.

In an interview on WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show,” Tuberville praised Manchin for standing up to his own party on the issue of keeping the filibuster rule in place.

“Joe Manchin’s an American,” Tuberville said. “He still believes in this country. He’s one of the few Democrats that actually — he doesn’t care what they say. Whether they vote him back in or not, he’s voting for the country.”

The senator reiterated that the country would be in serious trouble if the Democrats were able to pass everything they wanted.

“I will say this,” Tuberville continued, “Joe Manchin is a Democrat; he saved this country. He saved this country when he voted against busting the filibuster. Now, Sinema did the same thing, but she went by Joe’s lead and Joe stood up to them every day. He was getting absolutely hammered, and he even said, ‘Hey we can’t run our country into the ground like this, we’ve got to have minority input on everything we do in the Senate because the House is 50/50.”

Tuberville advised that there was no chance Manchin would ever change his mind on the issue.

“When push comes to shove,” he said, “Joe Manchin stood up for the American people — not Republicans, not Democrats but Americans. The taxpayers of this country said we cannot continue to run our country into the ground, we have to give the Republicans or the minority the opportunity to have input. He will not vote to bust the filibuster, I can tell you that right now.”

He emphasized that Manchin cared more about the country than getting reelected.

“He doesn’t look for the next three or four years of the future,” he said, “he looks for the next 100, 150, 200 years of our country. He understands that if we make a change now in terms of the filibuster, this group would have passed four to five trillion dollars more money between now and next November, you know, when the election is, and he knows how dangerous that is.”

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” Weekdays 9-11am on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee

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