Far-left Democrat blasts Manchin for opposition to For The People Act: He's 'the new Mitch McConnell'

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Media top headlines June 7

CNN’s Brian Stelter getting panned for interview with Jen Psaki, the New York Times being criticized for ‘biased’ tweet against Joe Manchin, and Peter Daszak getting cited by media fact-checkers and Facebook round out today’s top media headlines.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., blasted Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Monday for not budging on keeping the filibuster and opposing sweeping Democratic elections legislation, saying Manchin was doing "everything in his power to stop democracy."

"Joe Manchin has become the new Mitch McConnell," Bowman said on CNN. "Mitch McConnell, during Obama's presidency, said he would do everything in his power to stop Obama. He's also repeated that now during the Biden presidency … Now Joe Manchin is doing everything in his power to stop democracy and to stop our work for the people, the work that the people sent us here to do."

Manchin has committed to keeping the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to break to stop debate on most legislation and force votes, and he announced over the weekend his opposition to the For The People Act, a radical Democratic voting measure that conservatives argue would usurp state election authority.

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CNN's "New Day," which has taken on an increasingly liberal bent with the addition of Brianna Keilar to its anchor desk, used the chyron "War On Voting" during the segment.

Bowman was elected to Congress in 2020 and was endorsed by the far-left Justice Democrats. He said his office had reached out to Manchin's and had been ignored. Manchin occupies a unique space in the U.S. Senate with 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents. He represents a state that Republican Donald Trump won in landslides in 2016 and 2020, making him a key swing vote on thorny legislation. 

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Noting Manchin's 100% voting record with Biden on bills that have reached the floor, CNN's John Berman asked Bowman if the comparison to McConnell was fair. Bowman protested that the voting bill was popular and, using a popular left-wing talking point, decried the filibuster as a "Jim Crow relic," despite it being employed by Democrats during the Trump era.

Progressives are infuriated by Manchin's stance, with liberal media members and Democrats alike castigating him. Far-left journalist Jemele Hill called Manchin a "cowardly, power-hungry white dude" after he announced his opposition to the For The People Act.

Manchin told "Fox News Sunday" that he would vote against the sprawling, 800-page bill because it was too partisan. The bill would bring generational change to elections law and enact a host of Democratic initiatives, such as requiring states to automatically register eligible voters and offer same-day voter registration, as well as force them to count mail-in votes received 10 days after the election.

"It's the wrong piece of legislation to bring our country together and unite our country, and I'm not supporting that because I think it would divide us more. I don't want to be in a country that's divided any further," Manchin said.

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Washington Post columnist George Will, a staunch critic of former President Donald Trump, said the bill was blatantly unconstitutional last week.

Fox News' Edmund DeMarche contributed to this report.