Has Manchin Doomed the Build Back Better Plan?

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 21 December 2021

⏱️ 25 minutes

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Summary

Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia was always going to be the last Democrat to get on board with President Biden’s $2.2 trillion climate, social spending and tax bill. But the White House was confident that a compromise could be reached. On Sunday, that confidence was shattered: In an interview on Fox News, Mr. Manchin essentially declared that he could not support the bill as written, and he indicated that he was done negotiating all together. Where does this leave Mr. Biden’s signature domestic policy goal? Guest: Emily Cochrane, a correspondent for The New York Times, based in Washington.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the New York Times, I'm Sabrina Tevernice. This is the Daily.
0:12.0	The Senate's crucial democratic holdout, Joe Manchin, now says he cannot vote for President
0:17.4	Biden's signature domestic policy plan, all but killing the $2 trillion bill.
0:22.9	I spoke with my colleague, Emily Cochran, about why Manchin is backing out now and where
0:28.1	this leaves the President.
0:34.1	It's Tuesday, December 21st.
0:40.9	Emily, I want to roll back the clock a little bit because for the past few weeks, it's felt like Senator
0:47.5	Joe Manchin was on the fence about this giant piece of legislation, historic climate and social
0:53.6	spending bill proposed by President Biden. But the sense we all had was that this would somehow
1:00.6	all work out for Biden, if this would all pass. So what happened?
1:06.1	So we always knew that Joe Manchin was probably going to be the last Democrat to get on board.
1:13.4	And the President had really turned a lot of attention, as you said, to getting him on board,
1:18.9	inviting him to his house in Delaware to meet one-on-one phone calls, one-on-one meetings at the
1:25.9	White House. At least one senator was joking that Joe Manchin probably had his own parking space
1:32.0	by this week. But there was this confidence that because this was Joe Biden's plan, because
1:38.7	these two men had a friendship and an understanding from each having years of experience in the Senate,
1:45.6	that they would be able to work out a compromise.
1:48.0	So the President thought he was close. All indications pointed to that. But by Sunday, all of that changed.
1:59.8	What happened? Tell me about it. So I think most of the Capitol Hill press corps knew something
2:05.7	was up when we saw Joe Manchin was going to appear on the Fox News Sunday show.
2:11.9	Joining us now, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Senator, welcome back to Fox News
2:16.3	Sunday. Good to be with you, Brett. In the past, when Joe Manchin has wanted to make himself clear,
	...

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