They’re the Senate GOP’s two favorite Democrats: West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema. They worked with Republicans to craft a massive bipartisan infrastructure deal and to save the filibuster — and now, “​​Republicans acknowledge that because Manchin and Sinema preserved the filibuster, they need to at least listen to Democrats who are desperate for an agreement to reduce gun violence,” Burgess Everett and Marianne LeVine report.

— Manchin, asked if he can get 10 GOP votes, per the Hill pool: “​​I don’t know why you wouldn’t have 70 or 80, my goodness. … This is about basically protecting children. If they can’t rise to that, they ought to deep, deep dig inside and find out why in the heck we’re here.”

Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletter

Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.