Democratic Senator Joe Manchin Tells Fox News Abolishing the Filibuster Won’t Help Anyone

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin told Fox News on Wednesday that he was not in favor of ending the Senate filibuster or packing the Supreme Court. Manchin, who is widely considered the most conservative Democratic senator, argued that what is needed is more bipartisanship.

“Well, first of all, if you look at my record, all of you, if you looked at my record, I’m sure you have, I’m the most bipartisan person in the Senate,” Manchin told Fox & Friends. “I voted for 161 of President Trump’s judges. So I’ve been there bipartisan. I want to work in a bipartisan way. It comes down to that.”

Manchin criticized former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid‘s decision to end the use of the filibuster for some judicial appointments, though this did not apply to Supreme Court nominations. The use of cloture votes to end filibusters has increased significantly since the mid 1990s. However, he made clear he opposes President Donald Trump filling the sear vacated by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the election.

The West Virginia senator became the latest Democrat to reject filibuster reform and packing the court amid an ongoing debate in the party.

“I do not believe that would help anybody,” Manchin said. “Basically no-one’s working together. So if you have 11 or 13, it’s going to flip the other way no matter who comes in power. S why would you go down that path? It didn’t work in 2015 with the nuclear option. I would have doubts it would work this time. We’ve gotta fight for, basically, who we are as a Senate. Can we represent the people in a bipartisan way? Democrats and Republicans?”

Watch the video above, via Fox News.