The Hill – January 6, 2021
In the Senate, same deal, where we’re looking at a 50-50 split with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris serving as the tiebreaker. But know this: The assumption that either party will be in complete, unanimous lockstep is a farcical one.
Romney and Collins and especially Manchin will have unprecedented leverage. In a related story, Manchin has sided with the GOP more often than Democrats would like. He has voiced fierce opposition to the AOC-led defund-the-police movement. He once proclaimed he would oppose “crazy stuff” such as expansion of the Supreme Court and eliminating the filibuster, which by extension would dash any hope of expansion of the Senate through D.C. statehood. And without Manchin on board for those big-ticket items, or Romney or Collins or Murkowski defecting (which isn’t happening on those issues), the Senate never even gets to that tie-breaking vote by the vice president.