On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) responded to a question on whether Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) still belongs in the Democratic Party by stating that “we welcome everyone to the Democratic Party that can back the president’s Democratic agenda, the agenda that the House, the White House, the Senate ran on and delivered on.”
Host Wolf Blitzer asked, “Sen. Manchin says he’d like to think there’s still a place for him in the Democratic Party. Do you think he still belongs in the Democratic Party?”
Jayapal answered, “Look, we welcome everyone to the Democratic Party that can back the president’s Democratic agenda, the agenda that the House, the White House, the Senate ran on and delivered on. And that is the thing, Wolf, I think we have to understand. We know that there are structural problems with the Senate, where we twist ourselves into parliamentarian pretzels to actually get by the filibuster, which is a Jim Crow relic. But the reality is, we have an opportunity to deliver, and we worked from cutting the bill from 6 trillion to 3.5 trillion to 1.75 trillion, that framework that the president and Sen. Manchin committed to. And that is what we now need to deliver on, and we will — we are not going to stop. Because it is too important. We will fight, but we need to use every tool in the toolbox and that’s both legislation and executive action.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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