AOC blasts Joe Manchin as the reason Democrats are slow to pass laws

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) blasted Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) over the weekend, blaming the West Virginia senator for being a reason Democratic proposals often get stalled in the Senate.

Ocasio-Cortez took to Instagram on Friday to tout the House’s passage of a bill to codify abortion rights, acknowledging the legislation is all but doomed in the Senate. A follower then asked the New York Democrat why it feels like “things get passed in the House faster than in the Senate.”

HOUSE AGAIN PASSES SWEEPING ABORTION RIGHTS BILL ON TRACK TO FAIL IN THE SENATE

“Because the House doesn’t have Joe Manchin in it,” Ocasio-Cortez replied.

The comments come after the House on Friday passed the Women’s Health Protection Act, a sweeping abortion rights bill that had already been passed by the chamber this Congress. The legislation had previously been taken up by Congress, but lawmakers renewed efforts to consider the bill after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.

Proponents of the bill say it codifies the standards previously set by Roe into law, while opponents contend it would go beyond what Roe permitted by undoing state-level restrictions that had previously been upheld by the courts.

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The bill, which passed the House on Friday with a 219-210 vote, was previously considered by Congress in February. However, it failed to gain traction in the Senate as it was unable to surpass the necessary 60-vote threshold to clear the chamber’s filibuster for a vote. Manchin, who considers himself personally anti-abortion but backed the legal standard set by Roe, broke ranks with his party to oppose the bill.

But even if Manchin were to change his position on the bill in the absence of Roe, both he and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) have reiterated they remain opposed to removing the filibuster, leaving the bill with no path forward to pass in the Senate.

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