“January 6 changed me. I have never thought of my life, I have never read in history books where our form of government was attacked, at our seat of government, that is Washington, DC, in our Capitol, by our own people,” Manchin said. adding, “So something told me,” Wait a minute. Pause. Hit the pause button. ” Something’s wrong. You can’t split so many people according to where they want to go to war with each other. “
The West Virginia Senator has too much influence in a chamber where Democrats control the smallest possible majority under a 50-50 Partisan division. Manchin says he wants to exercise that power wisely.
“I’ve seen people who had power and abused it,” he said. “I’ve seen people who sought power and destroyed themselves, and I’ve seen people who have a moment to make a difference and change things and use it – I’d like to be the third one.”
“Reconciliation was never meant to be our main focus or our main tool for legislation. That’s not legislative. It should be used from time to time. I understand that,” said Manchin. But he added, “There is a time and a place.”
Manchin also backed his opposition to changing Senate rules to eliminate the 60-vote threshold that must be passed in order to pass most legislation so that Democrats can pass more bills in a party line vote. “I’m not killing the filibuster. I’ve been very, very clear,” he said.
As it stands now, Democrats would need 10 Republicans to back an infrastructure bill to pass it through a so-called regular warrant. But it is not clear that any of them would come on board. No Republican has voted in favor of the Covid relief law, and Mitch McConnell, Senate minority leader, has already said that Biden’s infrastructure law is far too big to pass as proposed. Repeatedly insisting if he was convinced that Republicans would come to a “yes,” Manchin said more discussions were needed.
Asked if he believes Republican lawmakers would be willing to raise the corporate tax rate, Manchin said, “We’ll have to wait and see,” adding, “There are so many things going on with the tax bill … can’t we? close some of the loopholes? “
Manchin praises Biden’s firearms actions
Asked if there have been any negotiations on the House legislation, Manchin said, “We haven’t received a bill yet, no we haven’t. I’m happy to work with them, sit down and we’ll just call it common sense. . “
Manchin calls ATF nominee ‘well qualified’
Manchin spoke highly of Biden’s choice to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, calling the candidate “well qualified.” Biden announced on Thursday that he is nominating gun control advocate David Chipman to head the agency, which has not had a permanent director since 2015. Asked if he would support the nomination, Manchin said: “All I know is that he is well qualified and I have no reason why I shouldn’t, but I don’t know enough yet. He was just nominated today. look at it, but I’ve always been very reverent about the president putting his team together. ”
Manchin describes a good relationship with Biden and Harris
Manchin said he has an open line of communication with the White House and a good relationship with Biden.
“They have been very nice in talking. We do talk; we have communication as often as I would like and as often as they would like.” Specifically about Biden, he said, “Every time he calls me, he calls and then we have a good conversation. We have had a good friendship and relationship for a long time. We understand each other.”
Manchin downplayed the situation when asked about it: “Things moved really fast. They just got in. Kamala and I have been friends, okay? We sat together and had a great relationship … and still do. And the vice president and president is and always will be invited, no matter who they are, in the state of West Virginia, and I’ll be there to meet them. It just happened real quick and I didn’t know, I didn’t know. was nobody’s fault. “
Manchin wants to meet with Warnock and Ossoff about voting rights
When asked what changes he would like to see in the Senate’s voting rights law, the For the People Act, Manchin said he wants to discuss the matter with Georgia Democratic Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat. ‘I want to meet my friends Raphael Warnock. I want to meet Jon Ossoff. I want to meet Jim Clyburn. ” He added, “We’re going to get together, we’ll do it. We’ve talked. We’ve all talked,” and went on to say, “We’re going to get Republicans and Democrats to sit down.”
This story was updated on Thursday with additional developments