CLAY: The big story that happened during Christmas break, during the new year break: Joe Manchin — a real slap in the face to the Biden administration — announced that he would not accept or support Build Back Better as it’s presently constituted, and he went on Fox News to do it with Bret Baier, which I know just had to drive the White House crazy. Manchin is now back on Capitol Hill, and he was just asked recently is he going to support both the filibuster — which he said, “No, nothing’s changed there” — and also have they had any conversations about Build Back Better and whether or not he would support it. Here’s what Manchin said.
MANCHIN: (sigh) I’m really not going to talk about Build Back Better anymore (chuckles) because I think I’ve been very clear on that. There is no negotiations go on at this time, okay? And there’s an awful lot of things that had a lot of — a lot of things that were very (long pause) I think well intended. And there was all of the things that were pretty far reach on some things. And the most delicate times that we have right now and our country is divided. And I don’t intend to do anything that divides our country anymore. So whatever I can do to unite and bring people together — and that means you have to work harder as you work across the aisle to bring people together.
BUCK: I just want to say, Clay, this is the system working. Believe it or not, I know people don’t often pose it that way. Certainly, Democrats think that this is awful. Bernie Sanders has a lot of trouble with math. He’s like (impression), “One Senator shouldn’t stop all this.” No, it’s all the Republicans plus. But here what we have is the system working the way it’s supposed to insofar as you shouldn’t have a massive, multitrillion-dollar additional spending package going through that will change a lot of aspects of the American economy and day-to-day lives, when there’s absolutely no legislative mandate expressed through the will of people voting to do so.
When you have a razor-thin majority, you’re not supposed to try to transform the country, and I know this was the old Obama line about fundamental transformation of America. Obama, unfortunately, got to that sixty-vote threshold. Remember this? That’s actually how bad things were after eight years of the Bush administration. So as much as I disagreed with and opposed everything that he was trying to do, they did have the votes for a period of time there to do it.
And they tried Obamacare. They tried all these radical proposals. Biden doesn’t have it. He simply doesn’t have the votes. They can whine about it all day. They can cry about it. But if the American people wanted this, then they would have the votes to do it, and this is the part of it that they keep trying to avoid people recognizing.
CLAY: And I think the big takeaway as well is Joe Manchin’s gonna run again in 2024, and we got a lot of people listening in West Virginia. I wonder on some level, Buck, after 2022 when the shellacking happened — ’cause I’m with you. We talked earlier about the importance of a red wave and holding Democrats accountable for defund the police and for not opening schools and for lying and failing on covid.
All of those things are significant, I think, in terms of holding Democrats responsible for the positions they staked out. It wouldn’t stun me at all if, after 2022, Joe Manchin goes full independent and says, “You know what? I just am not a part of this Democrat Party that exists right now,” and then potentially runs as an independent in 2024, because there’s no way a Democrat gets elected in West Virginia.
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