Dems thought they were going to get whatever they wanted, and considering they have the majority in both houses as well as Biden in the White Houses, it’s a fair assumption. But much to their surprise a few moderates are standing in their way. Senator Manchin in particular seems to continually be a thorn in the progressive’s side. He refuses to allow the passage of a bill that would get rid of the filibuster, one of the few tools the GOP has left as the minority party. So the MSM is backing the hate on Sen. Manchin and MSNBC’s Brian William went as far as to question whether he was even a Democrat.
During an episode of MSNBC’s 11th Hour, Williams went after Senator Manchin.
“Let me start by playing more of your exchange with Senator Manchin we’ll discuss on the other side,” Williams said starting the discussion on Manchin.
JOE MANCHIN (AUDIO CLIP): My Democrat colleagues have known me for over ten years. They’ve watched my voting pattern. It’s been the most bipartisan voting pattern in the Senate, ok? So for them to think I’ve changed my voting pattern because I want to be in a position of being that one person in the middle, that never happened — everything changed. I didn’t change. I represent the state of West Virginia. That’s who hired me, I represent them in the best possible fashion I can, and I’m not going to get in a situation where I’m placating to different people that want different things. It’s my state. The more things we do in a partisan fashion, and not trying to do it in a bipartisan fashion, separates us further. It’s not good for our country.
WILLIAMS: So Garrett, buddy, to be straight up with ya, I’m going to start with two questions, both of which may require just a hint of analysis from the reporter, and here they are. What makes him a Democrat? And is he, as so many people believe, secretly really enjoying this moment?
GARRETT HAAKE: Well, I don’t think it’s a secret that Manchin enjoys being in the middle of all these discussions and being in a position where his politics are driving a lot or driving at least some of what the senate’s doing. He has, as he laid out there, a very specific idea of how the Senate should function. He wants to see it function in a bipartisan way. That may be a complete anachronism for our modern senate. Certainly, a lot of his Democratic colleagues in that body thinks so, but that’s the way he’s chosen to operate. And as to what makes him a Democrat, Manchin takes a lot of grief for his position on the filibuster and on the voting rights bill, which he does not support, which are things that separate him from the majority of his party, but he has voted with President Biden on every vote that has mattered so far the only time he broke with them was on the Neera Tanden nomination. We are here in West Virginia because he is touring part of the state with the Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm talking about ways in which West Virginia can participate in a clean energy future. So he’s trying in his own way to be a team player, but he is hardcore dug in on his idea of how the Senate should work in a bipartisan way, and that will frustrate many, many of his colleagues particularly on those two key issues the voting rights bill the Democrats want to pass and the filibuster that they would need to remove to do so.
WILLIAMS: Uh say, Lisa, do you care to guess why Biden seems so determined to continuing to pursue bipartisanship?
LISA LERER: Well, in part because of Joe Manchin, right? There’s a real advantage for Biden in continuing to push this, at least to a certain point, because he, even without Republican support, cannot get this legislation through the Senate without the support of these moderate Democrats like Joe Manchin, like Kyrsten Sinema who want to see that he made every possible effort to get some kind of bipartisan legislation.
At some point, his patience will run thin. The White House, as we saw in the intro, has sort of pushed back on this idea of a Monday timeline which was floated earlier this week. But you know the president and the administration is facing sort of a new push, a little bit of impatience from their left flank, which is also important. So at some point these negotiations will end and you know, they’ll either have a bipartisan deal, or the White House will go it alone and try to push something through with Democratic support on reconciliation. A lot of money in Washington thinks the latter is the more likely outcome, but he can’t get to that point without going through a really robust negotiation process with Republicans.”
Watch The Clip Below.
If this had been a member of the GOP, they would have called him a white supremacist already. So this was definitely not as hard as they come at the GOP, but still its shows the frustration progressives have with anyone that wants to actually pass bi-partisan legislation. Senator Manchin is right to stick to his guns. It’s messed up that they would even consider removing the filibuster. It just means Dems want to ram through ridiculous policies that they know half the country is not going to agree with and transform the country into something unrecognizable.
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