West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (I) said President Biden “went completely insane on me” over the senator’s initial opposition to the American Rescue Plan, the president’s first major piece of legislation.
“I was going to kill the whole bill. Then the president went completely insane on me,” Manchin said in an interview with news outlet Semafor that was published Thursday.
The centrist senator said he told congressional Democrats and Biden to “at least draw some things back” in the legislation to allow Americans to “get back to work quicker.”
Eventually, Democrats in Congress passed the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package with no Republican votes through reconciliation. Manchin, who is set to retire from the upper chamber at the end of his term, was initially against voting for the spending package, but after Democrats made adjustments to the extended unemployment benefits, he came around.
When reflecting on the relief package, Manchin said in the interview that he should have voted against it due to the bill’s size. He told Semafor he backed the package to exhibit respect to Biden.
Manchin’s remarks confirm Biden pressured him to vote for the COVID-19 relief package. Biden and Manchin talked over the phone in March 2021, when the president urged the senator to back Biden’s first major bill.
“Biden had refrained from applying personal pressure. But there was a limit to his patience. He picked up the phone and delivered a stern message to Manchin. He stated the obvious: ‘Joe, if you don’t come along, you’re really f‑‑‑ing me. I need you on this. Find your way to yes,’” Atlantic staff writer Franklin Foer wrote in his book titled “The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future.”
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