Senator Manchin is finally making clear his intent to do to President Biden’s signature Build Back Better bill what Sen. John McCain did to President Trump’s signature Obamacare Repeal bill.
The White House accused Sen. Joe Manchin III of a double-cross on President Biden’s mammoth social welfare and climate change legislation.
In a fiery statement, White House press secretary Jennifer Psaki rebuked the West Virginia Democrat for making an ‘inexplicable reversal’ days after pledging support for the $1.75 trillion social welfare bill.
(The Washington Times, December 19, 2021)
To be fair, though, nobody should be surprised. In fact, I’ve been chronicling his intent in a series of commentaries, including most recently in “Every Dem Senator Can Play Kingmaker. So Why Is Manchin the Only One Playing It?” June 9, 2021. More to the point, I crystallized those commentaries in a podcast episode titled “Manchin, the Manchurian Senator, Bedeviling Biden’s Agenda,” on November 6, 2021, which includes the following:
Frankly, all that’s left is for Manchin to declare his intent to switch parties, leaving the Democrats he led down this primrose path to clean up his mess.
Sure enough, he came pretty close to doing just that on Sunday. That’s when, instead of choosing the Senate floor like McCain did, he chose the Republican Party’s propaganda network, Fox News, as the venue to give Biden his thumb’s down.
Here is how The Hill reported on his turncoat appearance:
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Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) announced on Fox News Sunday that he will not vote for President Biden’s ‘mammoth’ climate and social spending bill, essentially killing the White House’s top legislative priority.
‘I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation, I just can’t. I tried everything humanly possible, I can’t get there’ he told guest host Bret Baier.
‘You’re done – this is a no,’ Baier said.
‘This is a no on this legislation,’ Manchin responded. ‘I have tried everything I know to do,’ he said, closing the door on Democratic hopes that he might be persuaded to change his mind.
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Unsurprisingly, this had Washington all atwitter on Sunday – complete with Democrats venting a confluence of anger and vengeance. But I found his appearance so anticlimactic that I see no point in dignifying it with any further comment.
Far more worthy was Vice President Kamala Harris’s appearance on Friday’s edition of Tha God’s Honest Truth on Comedy Central. Because, in hindsight, the visceral way she reacted to a question about Manchin suggests she might’ve had a preview of his Fox News appearance on her mind.
‘I want to know who the real president of this country is — is it Joe Biden, or Joe Manchin?’ Charlamagne — whose real name is Lenard McElvey — asked Harris during her Friday appearance. …
‘It’s Joe Biden — and don’t start talking like a Republican!’ Harris snapped in response to Charlemagne’s question. ‘It’s Joe Biden. And I’m vice president, and my name is Kamala Harris.’
Meow…
Mind you, Charlamagne was right to put Harris on the defensive. But he was wrong to parrot lazy, asinine Republican talking points about who is the real president.
As it happens, though, Biden’s visit to South Carolina State University on Friday highlighted why Manchin is bedeviling Biden’s agenda. Because I maintain that Manchin so resents the public show Biden made of saying how beholden his presidency is to Black folks, especially Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, that he’s hell-bent on showing Biden and those “uppity” Black folks that white still makes right.
And what perverse relish it must be for white supremacists that he is showing this – not as an army of tiki-torch carrying Neo-Nazis, but as one unreconstructed Dixiecrat senator against the whole Democratic congressional caucus.
Of course, nothing betrayed Manchin’s intent to switch political parties quite like him supporting a tax reprieve for billionaires (none of whom even live in his state) while opposing paid family and medical leave (which mostly benefits working women). Of course, this is the same Democratic senator who thinks preserving the way whites used the filibuster to stall voting rights (for Blacks) in the 20th century is more important than protecting voting rights (for Blacks) in the 21st century. So…
Having said all that, it occurs to me now that the only thing worse than Manchin switching parties is Manchin staying in the Democratic Party and continuing to bedevil Biden’s agenda openly and notoriously, the way he has been doing privately and fiendishly. Besides, for a variety of reasons not worth mentioning, there’s probably little to be gained by doing so at this point.
Suffice it to know that the only thing that explains Manchin’s willful betrayal of President Biden and congressional Democrats is his intent to channel no less a person than Ronald Reagan by announcing that:
I didn’t leave the Democratic party; the Democratic party left me.
Except, instead of doing so with Reaganesque charm and sincerity, Manchin will be doing so with Trumpian guile and venality.
Related commentaries:
Podcast: Manchin, the Manchurian… Every senator kingmaker… Fox News…
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