Manchin Won’t Endorse Harris After Her Call to End Filibuster Over Abortion Rights

Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, an independent who considered making a presidential run this year, said on Tuesday that he would not endorse Vice President Kamala Harris after she reiterated her support for eliminating the Senate filibuster to pass abortion rights legislation.

“Shame on her,” Mr. Manchin, who is not running for re-election, told CNN. “She knows the filibuster is the Holy Grail of democracy. It’s the only thing that keeps us talking and working together. If she gets rid of that, then this would be the House on steroids.”

He was responding to Ms. Harris saying for the first time as the Democratic presidential nominee that she would back ending the filibuster in order for Congress to pass a bill protecting abortion rights, comments she made during a radio interview that aired earlier on Tuesday. Both she and President Biden have expressed that view in the past.

“I’ve been very clear: I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe,” Ms. Harris told Wisconsin Public Radio in the interview, which was recorded on Monday. “Fifty-one votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do.”

Mr. Biden, a longtime supporter of Senate traditions who served in the chamber for more than 35 years, first said in 2022 that he would back ending the filibuster — which effectively requires 60 votes to move legislation forward in the Senate — to restore Roe v. Wade. Many liberals had pressured him to take that stance, noting that their legislation would be stymied if the filibuster stayed in place.