CNN’s Bakari Sellers Says Joe Manchin and Other Moderate Democrats Opposing Filibuster Reform are ‘On The Side of George Wallace’

CNN political commentator Bakari Sellers was unsparing in his criticism of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and other moderate Democrats for their hesitation over abolishing the filibuster to pass voting rights reform, comparing them to the segregationist Alabama governor George Wallace.

Sellers made his comments in response to a speech Tuesday by President Joe Biden at Morehouse College in Atlanta, in which the president also invoked the specter of Wallace, who infamously declared in his 1963 inauguration speech that he supported “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

“So I ask every elected official in America: How do you want to be remembered?” Biden asked rhetorically, challenging the senators who will vote on the issue if they wanted to be on the side of Wallace or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jefferson Davis or Abraham Lincoln.

The Lead host Jake Tapper brought up Biden’s speech, calling it “his strongest, starkest pitch yet for election reform,” and noting that progressive activists had been wanting Biden to take a strong stand on the issue but still refusing to take part in what they viewed as a yet another of the “White House photo ops” at the speech.

CNN senior political correspondent Abby Phillip responded that it was “kind of too late,” because the activists had wanted Biden to “make this issue priority number one,” and to use his political capital to advance this issue, possibly even ahead of infrastructure. She also questioned the president’s comment that he had been “quietly talking” to Democrats and Republicans on the Hill about this topic, “because from what we are hearing on Capitol Hill, from our correspondents and others, is that there is no movement, either on the Democratic side or on the Republican side on these things.”

Tapper said that while there were 50 votes among Senate Democrats to support both pieces of election reform legislation, but there were not enough votes to change the Senate rules to abolish the filibuster, which would require 60 votes. Manchin, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), and Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) were among those who had said they “had a lot of concerns” about that.

“Do you think today’s speech would have any impact on them?” Tapper asked Sellers.

“I mean, that is the million-dollar question,” Sellers replied, noting that he had attended Morehouse College, where Biden had given that speech, and stayed in the same dormitory that King stayed in.

“Dr. King talked about the fierce urgency of now,” said Sellers, “and many of us wanted Joe Biden to have this urgency sooner because this would be, or possibly be, something that could get done.”

Regarding whether Biden’s speech would be able to change minds, Sellers thought the president had “framed it perfectly” and the “tone was great,” but activists were concerned about the timing.

“But this is is as clear as I can be, Jake,” Sellers continued:

Chris Coons, Jon Tester, Mark Kelly, Kyrsten Sinema, and Joe Manchin want to be on the side of George Wallace, want to be on the side of Strom Thurmond and many others who stood in the way of civil rights — even Strom Thurmond came around on voting rights — but if they want to go down in history as standing on the side of segregationists and those who oppose people who look like me having free and fair access to the ballot, then we’ll remember them as such.

This is that type of moment, and this is the urgency we have to have.

Watch the video above, via CNN.