Pennsylvania Democrat Tears Into Manchin and Sinema Over Filibuster: ‘Stop Mucking Around’
Democratic Pennsylvania state legislator Malcolm Kenyatta slammed Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) on Monday for being against abolishing the Senate filibuster amid the battle over voting rights.
“And we see very clearly that these folks will do everything in their power to not let the voices of the people be heard, to not respect every vote,” said Kenyatta on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House. “So this is a five-alarm fire. I don’t know what other words to put it in.”
Kenyatta, who is running for the Senate in 2022, then took aim at the two prominent members of his party in the U.S. Senate who have repeatedly said they would not vote to abolish the legislative filibuster.
“And I will say what should be said, and I know that they’re hearing it every single day. Krysten Sinema, Joe Manchin, stop playing around, stop mucking around,” he said. “Let’s get rid of the Senate and let’s ensure that Black and brown voters, who are the backbone of the Democratic Party, that we are able to vote as easily and accessibly as possible.” (Kenyatta forgot to insert the word “filibuster” after the word “Senate.”)
Kenyatta went on to slam those who are for election integrity laws as those who want “to shut up” certain people.
“Because as I said before, they’re not trying to shut up everybody. They’re trying to shut up young people, they’re trying to shut up Black people, they’re trying to shut up marginalized people. And we won’t shut up,” he said. “We’re going to continue to do what I’ve done as the chair of the subcommittee on campaign finance and elections… in the Pennsylvania House is call out the lies, the garbage, the bull crap every single time.”
Kenyatta concluded his rant on a personal note and as an ode to the late civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis (R-GA)
“My grandfather and so many others bled, some folks died for the right to vote. And everybody is putting out these tweets the other day, talking about John Lewis, who we lost a year ago. John Lewis doesn’t need a tweet saying how wonderful he was,” he said. “What he needs is for his life’s work to matter. So if you put out a tweet about John Lewis, then you ought to have the backbone to actually get rid of the filibuster and do what is necessary to secure our democracy.”
Watch above, via MSNBC.
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