Sen. Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, writing in his home state newspaper, dashed his party’s hopes for passing a voting rights bill when he demanded it must be bipartisan. He also said he would not vote to weaken or eliminate the filibuster, to make it easier for Democrats to pass their agenda. Editorial cartoonists teed off on the resulting controversy.
Manchin wrote, in part: “...congressional action on federal voting rights legislation must be the result of both Democrats and Republicans coming together to find a pathway forward or we risk further dividing and destroying the republic we swore to protect and defend as elected officials.”
Walt Handelsman of the New Orleans Advocate/Times-Picayune drew Manchin on the starting line of a running race — facing the opposite direction from Democrats. Dana Summers depicts the senator as boulder being rolled uphill by his party.
Cartoonists also riffed on the trip to Central America by Vice President Kamala Harris to address the migration crisis, and President Joe Biden’s trip to Europe, where he will meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Other items in the news include the announcement of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos that he would be a passenger on his company’s first crewed mission to space; continued congressional negotiations on an infrastructure deal; and a leak of IRS data showing that American’s richest people avoid paying income tax.
Cartoons were drawn by Nick Anderson, Bill Bramhall, Dana Summers, Drew Sheneman, Scott Stantis, Walt Handelsman, David Horsey, Phil Hands, Joel Pett and Joey Weatherford of Tribune Content Agency; and A.F. Branco, Mike Luckovich and Michael Ramirez of Creators Syndicate.
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