congressional Democrats are planning to take their first step toward passing the president’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill without Republican help. But now they’ve got a problem: an unhappy Manchin — who, like it or not, has the power to grind this entire thing to a halt.
…here’s what happened: For days the moderate West Virginia Democrat has been imploring the White House to cut a deal with Republicans on coronavirus assistance. Stimulus checks shouldn’t be going to people making $300,000, he’s made clear, and the overall price tag should come down after Congress has already spent upward of $4 trillion. Democratic leaders, however, have balked at the notion of slowing down to negotiate and will put a budget on the floor this week to prepare reconciliation.
But here’s the thing: They need Manchin’s support to do it.
Enter Harris and what one of my Democratic sources called a “ham-handed” interview on local West Virginia television Thursday. It was clearly meant to up the pressure on Manchin to support Biden’s package, but it only antagonized him. “I couldn’t believe it,” Manchin said in a video that went viral Saturday. “No one called me [about it]. … We’re going to try to find a bipartisan pathway forward … but we need to work together. That’s not a way of working together, what was done.”
I’m told Manchin also conveyed his displeasure privately to senior White House officials late last week. Another head-scratcher in all this: Harris isn’t exactly popular in West Virginia. And in the interview, she referred to “abandoned land mines” instead of “abandoned mine lands” in West Virginia, a slip-up sure to cause eye rolls in the state.
Even before Harris’ interview, senior Democrats on the Hill were privately a little worried about Manchin, noting that he has the power to stop Democratic leaders from jamming through the Covid package without Republicans. Two options at Manchin’s disposal: refuse to back the budget this week until there are more talks with Republicans, or insist that Biden and Democrats lower the price tag before doing so.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattv...sure-joe-manchin-blew-up-in-her-face-n2584003
It looks like Sleepy Joe isn’t the only one having brain farts. Well, for Joe, those are legitimate. For Harris and company, it’s just their hatred of normal, hard-working Americans who, heaven-forbid, work in mines to extract energy resources.