Kyrsten Sinema And Joe Manchin Are Getting Dragged For Thinking They Can ‘Implore’ Republicans To Support The Jan. 6 Commission

The trust between Democrats and Republicans has greatly eroded over the last handful of years, and especially so over the last handful of months, when a violent siege by Trumpists into the Capitol, endangering all their lives, has led to…nothing. Not even Mike Pence’s brother seems to care about it. Republicans continue to support a disgraced septuagenarian former president-turned-blogger who now lives in resorts with strangers. But at least there’s two Democrats who still believe the GOP will do the right thing: Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin.

The two senators have been the most vocal about not toeing the party line. They refuse to help destroy the filibuster once and for all, and they refuse to believe Republicans will put country before party and help launch a commission into what happened on Jan. 6. The bill narrowly passed the House, with little GOP support, and it won’t pass the Senate without 10 Republicans voting for it. (So far two have publicly said they will, and one of them, of course, is Mitt Romney.) But Sinema and Manchin have a plan to get them to do the right thing: ask them real nicely.

On Tuesday, Sinema and Manchin released a joint statement, in which they said they “implore our Senate Republican colleagues to work with us to find a path forward on a commission to examine the events of January 6th.” They stated that the commisson “is a critical step to ensuring our nation never has to endure an attack at the hands of our countrymen again.”

But it’s unlikely simply appealing to better instincts will work. Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader, has come out against the commission, alleging that it was “slanted and unbalanced.” The two senators’ joint statement may wind up appealing to nobody — not Republicans, who seem dead-set against investigating into a deadly skirmish that may implicate some of them, and not Democrats, many of whom will likely see it as insufficiently persuasive.

The latter came out in force over social media, many mocking the two for thinking that imploring them to do the right thing will do anything but make Republicans laugh.

https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1397346234474565632

Some tried to beg the two to wise up.

And others tried to tell them, patiently, that GOP indifference to the commission is the final sign that killing the filibuster is the only way to save democracy from a party still in thrall to a madman.

Whatever happens, it’s unlikely Sinema can save her reputation, which has been tattered by things like flippant way she voted down a bill to finally raise the minimum wage and an Instagram brunch post where she appeared to tell her many righteous critics where to go.