White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday said that the Biden team is in “close touch” with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) after he expressed his frustration over an interview that Vice President Kamala Harris conducted with a local television station last week to promote President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package.
Having your Republican Governor say you should go big sounds pretty bipartisan to me numbnuts.
Jen Psaki is dynamite in these conferences . Biden made an excellent choice
So sick of the way Democrats have to bow at the altar of this guy. But, we need him.
Pressed on whether Biden personally spoke with Manchin, Psaki reiterated that the White House is “certainly in touch” with Manchin and “will continue to be.”
I get that some in the press are asking the equivalent of whether the captain of the football team asked the prom queen for a date personally, but I would prefer that Psaki say, “I’m not getting into that level of detail” rather than repeating her earlier answer.
ETA: My minor quibble is more than offset by epic performances like this:
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1356297031980113922?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1356304796639092738|twgr^|twcon^s3_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.balloon-juice.com%2F2021%2F02%2F01%2Fmonday-evening-open-thread-good-to-have-the-grown-ups-back-in-charge%2F
Let’s all chill out. Let’s not burn bridges. Let’s not be over-clever. Let’s not be bullheaded.
This is no Game. Ordinary people are hurting.
No matter who they hate.
I think Joey has a problem with a woman in national office, that’s what I think.
Seems to me like Manchin ought to be in close touch with what his constituents need
Manchin’s struggling with speaking in DC code. How is it “bipartisan” to keep him in the fold? He’s a DEMOCRAT. What he means is “I don’t want to really help anyone.”
What exactly is the issue – that she did an interview in WV without his knowledge, or did she say something that particularly bothered him? Isn’t really clear.
God almighty. Having to listen to Manchin crying for attention and the last remaining Republicans with any shred of integrity becoming way too important is definitely putting a damper on my good mood about being in the majority.
Paul Krugman, a person I listen to on economic issues because he has a proven record of being correct, has this to say today about the Republican plan in his column:
"What we need, then, is disaster relief to get afflicted Americans through the harsh months ahead. And that’s what the Biden plan would do.
Republicans, however, want to rip the guts out of this plan. They are seeking to reduce extra aid to the unemployed and, more important, cut that aid off in June — long before we can possibly get back to full employment. They want to eliminate hundreds of billions in aid to state and local governments. They want to eliminate aid for children. And so on.
This isn’t an offer of compromise; it’s a demand for near-total surrender. And the consequences would be devastating if Democrats were to give in."
Precisely. Rhetoric is one thing, votes are another. On lots and lots of issues, Manchin’s record on voting is way more important (and constructive) than the rhetoric he employs to hold his seat.
We need him, as someone said.
We need D.C. and Puerto Rico to be states, pronto.
The 50/50 split in the Senate gives Manchin veto power over everything Biden wants to accomplish legislatively. One more damned Dem win and we could have told the DINO to piss off.
But what does Manchin want? Favors? Personal reputation defense? Goodies for his constituents?
Mostly it seems like he wants everyone to treat him like a saint and be “moderate” and “bipartisan”. But its the Rs he seems to give every benefit of the doubt who are neither. So if Harris going to WV and giving interviews to the media gives him a reminder that he’s not running the show, all the better. Either he’s going to stick with the Democrat team he’s been on all along, or he needs to switch parties and learn the hard way that they don’t care at all about him or his constituents.
HE WANTS TO HOLD HIS SEAT.
AND WE WANT HIM TO.
And the US should be bilingual “pronto”.
Here in WVa, we have a couple of inches of Manchins on the ground
In other words: snowflakes
Okay, Joe. We get that your feelings were hurt by Kamala Harris giving an interview in West Virginia. Just vote right. Your constituents need help now.