In an open gesture to embattled moderate Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told Fox News on Wednesday …
In an open gesture to embattled moderate Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told Fox News on Wednesday that Manchin should join the GOP amid continuing attacks on the West Virginian from his own party. Manchin kicked off a panic among Democrats on Dec.19 when he announced in a Fox News Sunday interview that he would not be giving his crucial support to President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better (BBB) agenda in the Senate, becoming the 51st senator to openly oppose the bill. “This is a mammoth piece of legislation and I had my reservations from the beginning,” Manchin told host Brett Bauer. Despite working with President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “every minute of every day” to make the bill agreeable, Manchin said he simply could not give the almost $2 trillion bill his support. The announcement sent proponents of the bill into a fit, with several social progressives questioning Manchin’s character and motives. The progressives suggested that Manchin, who has been in intense negotiations with Biden for months on end, opposed the bill not out of ideological conviction but because he was merely serving special interests and donors. Others questioned Manchin’s character and sense of honor. “It’s unfortunate that it seems we can’t trust Sen. Manchin’s word,” Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said in a statement indicative of the general mood among left-wing progressives.
