Sen. Joe Manchin claimed Thursday that the US is a 'center-right' country and that President Biden should give up on trying to get the kind of 'major legislation' done that passed under Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.
'We can't go too far left,' the West Virginia Democrat told CNN from Capitol Hill on Thursday. 'This is not a center-left or a left country. We are a center — if anything, a little center-right country, that's being shown — and we ought to be able to recognize that.'
Manchin railed against his own 'hostile' workplace.
'You wanna know what's wrong with the place? I go to work in a hostile work environment every day,' the senator said.
'If you're a Democrat and a Republican is up for election, you're supposed to be against that person,' even if their opponent is 'Donald Duck.'
Pushing for a smaller reconciliation spending package, Manchin said: 'We don't have the numbers that FDR had or that Lyndon Baines Johnson had in order to get some major, major legislation done. We don't have those. So we have to come to the realization of what we have and deal in good faith that we can do at least something.'
Manchin said that Biden is being pushed to the left. 'And that's not Joe Biden.'
Meanwhile Manchin on Thursday morning was swarmed by a throng of climate protesters. The protesters surrounded his car in a parking garage, filming him and shouting at him.
Protesters from the Sunrise Movement hold a sign claiming Manchin is 'burning our future for profit'
Meanwhile Manchin on Thursday morning was swarmed by a throng of climate protesters
Protesters waited for the senator to harass him as he left his houseboat Thursday morning
The protesters surrounded his car in a parking garage, filming him and shouting at him
'We’re here at sunrise at @SenJoe_Manchin’s dock, home to his $5M houseboat, bought by fossil fuel money, to call out his greed and corruption that’s torching our future,' Hunger Strike 4 Climate Action wrote on Twitter. Manchin bought his DC houseboat in 2014 for $220,000.
Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a moderate Virginia Democrat also said Biden should stop acting like FDR.
'Nobody elected him to be F.D.R., they elected him to be normal and stop the chaos,' she told the New York Times, regarding the Biden agenda.
'We were so willing to take seriously a global pandemic, but we’re not willing to say, "Yeah, inflation is a problem, and supply chain is a problem, and we don’t have enough workers in our work force,"' she added. 'We gloss over that and only like to admit to problems in spaces we dominate.'
Two-thirds of the country, including the majority of Democrats, Republicans and independents, say that 'inflation is a very big concern for me,' according to a new poll.
Inflation in the United States has jumped to a three-decade high while wages haven't kept pace and prices for food, gas and rent are rising - all putting a growing economic burden on households.
Still, Democrats have no plans to heed the warnings of their centrist members and are forging ahead with a $1.2T bipartisan infrastructure bill and a $1.75T social and climate spending package.
Manchin reiterated that he did not believe paid family leave belonged in the reconciliation bill, though he said he supports the measure. 'Let's get it done in regular order through the process.'
'You wanna know what's wrong with the place? I go to work in a hostile work environment every day,' Manchin said
Squad members railed against Manchin for holding off support of President Biden's Build Back Better plan
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced her intention to revive paid family and medical leave Wednesday as part of President Biden's 'Build Back Better' plan.
Last week, Democratic leadership seemed optimistic both bills could be voted on this week. By Thursday, no vote has been scheduled.
The House Rules Committee released the latest, 2,135-page version of Democrats’ bill Wednesday afternoon.
Some Democrats, including Biden, blamed Tuesday's Virginia election losses on a failure to move the pair of bills through the House and Senate, after months of confusing, back-and-forth negotiations. Republicans took the governor's seat, the lieutenant governor's seat, the attorney general's spot and flipped the House of Delegates in the Old Dominion.
But Manchin saw his party's brutal losses as evidence that the 'divided' country was concerned about Democrats' focus on massive spending.
'I just saw it to confirm that we have a divided country … I hope it's a wake-up call for all of us,' the West Virginia Democrat told Fox News' Special Report's Bret Baier about the election results on Wednesday.
'I'm concerned. I've been talking about our debt, I've been talking about inflation, [and] I've been talking about the [economic] fallout we may have [from the spending bills],' he said.
Manchin, whose centrist vote wields much power in the 50-50 Senate, put the breaks on the larger spending package, saying in a press conference Monday he would not vote for it until he had 'greater clarity' on what its impact would be for inflation and the national debt.
Even after Democrats paired down their initial spending package from $3.5 trillion to $1.75 trillion, Manchin said his vote should not be taken for granted.
'I'm open to supporting a final bill that helps move our country forward,' Manchin said. 'But I am equally open to voting against a bill that hurts our country.'
The senator said he will not support a bill 'that expands social programs and irresponsibly adds to our $29 trillion debt that no one seems to really care about or really talk about. Nor will I support a package that risks hurting American families suffering from historic inflation.'
Manchin said that 'shell games' and 'budget gimmicks' could make the real cost of the $1.75T bill almost twice that amount.
'This is a recipe for economic crisis,' he added.
A lot of the spending cuts were made by trimming down on the length of time programs would be funded, but Manchin noted funding was likely to be extended to the original length of time in future Congresses.
Meanwhile, Squad member Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., called Manchin's opposition to Biden's Build Back Better plan 'anti-black.'
'Joe Manchin does not get to dictate the future of our country,' Bush tweeted Monday.
'Joe Manchin's opposition to the Build Back Better Act is anti-Black, anti-child, anti-woman and anti-immigrant. Senator Manchin must support the Build Back Better Act,' Bush said.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, meanwhile, hit out against those who blame progressives for Virginia's losses, claiming that McAuliffe is a 'not-at-all Democrat.' She quote tweeted a comment by Twitter user Secular Talk that said 'Can't wait for the left to be blamed for a not at all left democrat losing a D+10 state.' She added a face-smacking emoji.
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