I am also curious. Haven't read that Hot Kirsten or Joey the Chin changed their minds, but it's not like Mitch to freak out like this.
My own theory FWIW..
The Manchin and Sinema claims were lies. Schumer got them to make statements via the press that they were “not open” to killing the filibuster, so that McConnell would quit blocking the “power sharing” agreement that up to that point he’d been blocking.
Once Schumer got McConnell to no longer block the power sharing agreement, the “real” story started to come out.
The Dems are gonna start CW2 if they try this. The Filibuster has existed since the early 1800s for a reason - so that one party can’t go to crazy extremes with nutso legislation. But it’s pretty clear that’s exactly what the Dems want - the most extreme things this country has EVER seen.
The problem as I see it is that Mitch has given away what little power he did have - and now is holding a hand of 2s and 3s while the Dems have 4 Aces.
We need new leadership. It’s been clear for a very long time that Mitch is no longer even remotely competent. He’s still playing the 1990 “my Good Friends on the other side of the aisle” game, while his “good friends” are hell bent on not only destroying him and his entire caucus, but the entire country as well.
I have seen 4- 6 spots today with either Obama or some black person as the speaker with a mob in the background telling people to call their senators to end the filibuster and that it is a rule left over from the Jim Crow era so the pubs can keep the peoples party from doing what the people really want or some such.
It was a sudden move so I’m assuming the dems will say it is grassroots. I trust Mitch about as much as I trusted Mike Pence to do the right thing.