Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., defended his vote to advance a Democratic budget resolution Tuesday that would lay the groundwork for President Biden’s $1.9T COVID relief …
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., defended his vote to advance a Democratic budget resolution Tuesday that would lay the groundwork for President Biden’s $1.9T COVID relief package in the Senate, but maintained that he would not support the final legislation unless Congress could make it “work in a bipartisan way.” Manchin, a moderate with a reputation for working across party lines, is believed to be the key vote who could advance or block his colleagues’ attempts to pass the Biden proposal via budget reconciliation. With the Senate split 50-50, Democrats have little margin for error. “What I have told everybody, I made it very clear, from the President of the United States to all of my colleagues, we’re gonna make this work in a bipartisan way,” Manchin told “Special Report” host Bret Baier. “My friends on the other side are going to have input, and we are going to do something we agree on,” the senator added. Although Manchin’s vote is critical for Biden’s proposal to pass without support from Republicans, the West Virginia senator told Baier that he is “not going to do… just a party-line vote.
