On Sunday's edition of NBC's Meet the Press, United States Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) rehashed his defense of the Senate filibuster after moderator Chuck Todd asked him about his "viral" high-five with Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona) at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday, January 17th.
"You just came from Davos. There's a moment – I don't know if you realize how that went viral between you and Senator Sinema – I want to show the moment here. I want to ask you about it. You guys are high-fiving. I think we'll show it again here. And I think it was right after she was talking about the filibuster. Yeah. Is that what you were high-fiving and about?" Todd asked.
"Yeah, that was, I think. And after that and I didn't, I saw her hand go up, and I said, sure. Because here the two of us are committed to protecting the filibuster, which I think protects checks and balances on the Executive Branch," Manchin replied.
"So if you have a Democrat, Democrat, Democrat – president, House, and Senate – and you have a strong president, basically the leader of the party, then you don't have a check and balance, because I guarantee the House and Senate will roll to wherever the president wants," he continued.
"And I've said this before," Manchin recalled, "I appreciate the Republican senators and under leadership of McCall of Senate, minority leader at that time, McConnell, majority leader at that time, with Donald Trump every day beating on him, get rid of the filibuster.'"
Watch below or at this link.
\u201cWATCH: @Sen_JoeManchin (https://t.co/A9qEVDhA58.) explains his high five with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) at the World Economic Forum.\n\nManchin: "I saw her hand go up, and I said 'sure.' The two of us are committed to protecting the filibuster."\u201d— Meet the Press (@Meet the Press) 1674397088
