(PresidentialWire.com)- The vice president is stepping into the ring to try to pressure moderate Democratic senators to support the Biden administration’s ultra-liberal agenda.
On Monday, Kamala Harris said she’s “not going to absolve” any senators who decide to block legislation pushed by Democrats that is meant to overhaul the election system in the U.S.
That statement was in response to a reporter’s question about Senators Krysten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, both who have voiced opposition to the legislation, to the administration’s massive social spending bill and to changing the filibuster rule in the upper chamber.
But, Harris went further than just saying she believed the two senators should get in line with their Democratic colleagues. She suggested that any senator that didn’t support either the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act or the Freedom to Vote Act would fail to uphold the oath they took to defend the U.S. Constitution.
As she said at a Washington, D.C., volunteer event on Martin Luther King Jr. Day:
“The United States Senate has the opportunity and, I daresay, the responsibility to pass these bills through Congress so the president can sign them. And the resistance to doing that will not deter us from our commitment to getting it done.”
A reporter then followed her comments about with a question directly about the two moderate senators. Harris responded:
“As I’ve said before, there are 100 members of the United States Senate, and I’m not going to absolve — nor should any of us — absolve any member of the United States Senate from taking on a responsibility to follow through on the oath that they all took to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
In other words, those who didn’t simply pass the voting rights legislation — regardless of their beliefs on the bills or that of their constituents — they would be violating that oath.
Last week, Harris spoke to NBC News and spewed the same type of rhetoric, saying:
“When we have the discussion about who’s responsible, I will not absolve the 50 Republicans in the United States Senate from responsibility for upholding one of the most basic and important tenets of our democracy, which is free and fair elections and access to the ballot for all eligible voters.”
She was again questioned specifically about Sinema and Manchin, and responded:
“I don’t think anyone should be absolved from the responsibility of preserving and protecting our democracy. Especially when they took an oath to protect and defend our Constitution.”
Getting every Democratic member of the Senate “in line” has been a big challenge for the Biden administration. Manchin and Sinema have been holdouts on a number of issues so far. The two moderate Democrats aren’t buying into the full-blown ultra-progressive agenda the Biden administration is pushing.
But, instead of trying to negotiate with them and come to a bipartisan agreement that even some Republican senators could support, Biden and Harris have taken the opposite approach, attacking members of their own party.
