Fellow Democrats and especially the so-called progressive wing of the party have chastised West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin for not supporting President Joe Biden's almost $2 trillion social spending bill known as the Build Back Better Act.
It seems that Manchin will have to sleep on the couch for a while. Because almost immediately after the senator, whose objections have already blocked a vote on the bill in the upper house of Congress from advancing before the year's end, announced his decision, one of the most prominent progressives in the Senate, Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, attacked the Democrat, stating that if "he doesn't have the courage to do the right thing for the working families of West Virginia and America, let him vote no in front of the whole world."
In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Sanders claimed that Manchin's "no" vote demonstrated that the West Virginian had no courage to stand up to special interests in order to cut prescription medication costs, and that he has failed to expand home healthcare and Medicare.
According to Sanders, interest groups are "pouring hundreds of millions of dollars" into Washington to ensure that "we continue to pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs" and that "the rich do not start paying their fair share of taxes."
"I would have hoped that we could have had at least 50 Democrats on board," he said, noting that his fellow citizens "have got to understand" what's on the line. "For decades now, what Congress has been doing, giving tax breaks to the rich, not standing up to the drug companies, so we end up paying the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, ignoring climate change, the President of the United States and almost every Democrat is trying finally to address these issues."
Nevertheless, Sanders said he still wants to have a vote on the floor, adding that Manchin's home state is "one of the poorest states in this country."
"He’s going to have to explain to the people of West Virginia why he’s rejecting what the scientists of the world are telling us," Sanders noted, "that we have to act boldly and transform our energy system to protect future generations from the devastation of climate change."
'The Squad' Furious Over Manchin's 'Bullsh*t' Excuse
The members of the Democratic party's most left-leaning group, informally known as "The Squad," were among those who disliked Manchin's decision the most.
They not only accused their colleague of not being trustworthy after his decision, but claimed the reasoning behind his refusal to vote for the bill is far-fetched.
The left-wing Dems also expressed the view that it was not worth it for the party's leadership to separate the Biden's administration's two most important bill packages and that it made more sense to push for a vote on a single bill.
Thus, Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota took to Twitter on Sunday to call Manchin's excuse for the decision "bullsh*t."
The congresswoman then reiterated her evaluation of the senator's action, flatly claiming she knew Manchin "couldn't be trusted" during her Sunday appearance on MSNBC.
"The excuses that he just made, I think, are complete bullsh*t," she said. "It is really disheartening to hear him say that he has been trying to get there for the people of West Virginia because that's a complete lie. … There are just so many things that, you know, the people of West Virginia desperately need, and we know that he is not working on behalf of their interest, and I really am just completely disappointed and disgusted by his reasoning."
Congressman Mondaire Jones of New York called the disfavored senator a "tour de force in gaslighting and dishonesty."
"’We’ve got COVID’ — but Manchin just voted with Republicans to overturn Biden’s employer vaccine and testing requirements," he tweeted. "‘We’ve got inflation’ — but Build Back Better would cut costs for millions of working families."
Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts reportedly told CNN that "my lack and deficit of trust was about Senator Manchin."
"He has continued to move the goal post. He has never negotiated in good faith, and he is obstructing the president’s agenda," she added.
Another "Squad" member Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan noted that Manchin "pretends to have a problem with the cost of a $1.75T investment over 10 years in the American people, but has no problem with giving $9T to weapons makers and the military."
The group's informal leader, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, erupted into several rather angry tweets, in which she primarily accused the party leadership and Biden of having decided to split the infrastructure bill and the BBB and push them through Congress separately due to desperate Republican opposition.
"When a handful of us in the House warned this would happen if Dem leaders gave Manchin everything he wanted 1st by moving BIF before BBB instead of passing together, many ridiculed our position," she stressed, adding in the follow-up post:
White House Goes to War With Rogue Senator
Manchin's remarks sparked an immediate backlash from the White House, which targeted Manchin for what officials perceived as a violation of trust. Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said Manchin's statements "are at odds with his discussions this week with the President, with White House staff, and with his own public utterances" in an uncharacteristically frank statement.
In a written statement shared on the White House's website, Psaki said that "weeks ago, Senator Manchin committed to the President, at his home in Wilmington, to support the Build Back Better framework that the President then subsequently announced. Senator Manchin pledged repeatedly to negotiate on finalizing that framework ‘in good faith.’"
"If his comments on FOX and written statement indicate an end to that effort, they represent a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position, and a breach of his commitments to the President and the Senator’s colleagues in the House and Senate," she continued. "Just as Senator Manchin reversed his position on Build Back Better this morning, we will continue to press him to see if he will reverse his position yet again, to honor his prior commitments and be true to his word."
Manchin had previously reportedly presented an edited $1.7 trillion spending package, but said that his Democratic colleagues refused to make the required concessions. Instead of trying to pass such a massive spending plan, the West Virginia senator believed Congress should focus on combating the omicron strain of COVID-19, which has resulted in an increase in case numbers. He also stated that the government should handle inflation, which he claims has "harmed a lot of Americans."
Until today, Manchin has never expressed such a firm stance on the proposal. According to reports, he spoke to Biden multiple times in the last week, with the president and other Democrats pleading with him to back the plan.
Because the Senate is evenly divided, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had to ensure that every Democrat supports the bill, which just needs a simple majority vote to pass. That requirement provides Manchin significant clout over Biden's agenda, allowing him to single-handedly derail a priority that Democrats have been working on for the better part of the year.