Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Monday issued an angry response to White House staff and warned that Democrats had miscalculated by thinking that they could convince him to support President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better legislation.
“They figured surely to God we can move one person. We surely can badger and beat one person up. Surely we can get enough protestors to make that person uncomfortable enough that they’ll just say, ‘OK I’ll vote for anything,'” Manchin said during a radio interview with West Virginia MetroNews’ Hoppy Kercheval, according to The Hill.
“Well, guess what? I’m from West Virginia. I’m not from where they’re from and they can just beat the living crap out of people and think they’ll be submissive, period,” Manchin ranted.
Manchin’s comments come after he sent a jolt through Washington, D.C., on Sunday by announcing that he would not vote for Biden’s $2 trillion economic and social bill that was passed by the House earlier this year.
As noted by The Hil, Manchin’s remarks “sparked quick outrage from his Democratic colleagues and a rare on-the-record rebuke from the White House, with press secretary Jen Psaki suggesting that Manchin had “reversed his position.”
“If his comments on FOX and written statement indicate an end to that effort, they represent a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position, and a breach of his commitments to the President and the Senator’s colleagues,” Psaki said.
Manchin responded by saying the Hoite House is “basically retaliating.”
“I figured they would come back strong,” he said, according to The Hill.
Manchin didn’t criticize Biden during Monday’s interview, adding that he was always “willing to work and listen and try.” But he suggested that White House staff had leaked negative information about him and that he was at his “wits end.”
“They know the real reason, what happened. … It’s staff-driven. I understand it’s staff. It is not the president. This is staff. And they drove some things, and they put some things out, that were absolutely inexcusable. They know what it is,” Manchin said during the interview without indicating what he was referring to.
Manching concluded by saying that Democrats only hold 50 seats in the Senate and were “approaching legislation as if you have 55 or 60 senators.”
