Manchin says he will and won’t vote for COV bill by reconciliation

Sen. Brian Schatz walks past Sen. Joe Manchin in a hallway of the Capitol.

“Your highness,” Schatz greets him.

Manchin acknowledges his colleague, keeps walking.

~ Sahil Kapur, NBC News reporter

NBC News reporter Kapur quotes him as saying yesterday, “I will vote to move forward with the budget process because we must address the urgency of the COVID-19 crisis.”

Last night, Manchin said he would not vote for it by reconciliation.

Manchin does that regularly. He pretends he’s a centrist but always votes with the far-left Democrat Party.

The Hill said there’s a caveat:

“I will vote to move forward with the budget process because we must address the urgency of the COVID-19 crisis. But let me be clear — these are words I shared with President Biden — our focus must be on the COVID-19 crisis and Americans who have been most impacted by this pandemic,” Manchin said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon.

He knows, we all know, the COV bill is mostly handouts and bailouts.

Also on Tuesday, Manchin appeared on Fox News’ “Special Report With Bret Baier” and was asked by host Bret Baier if Senate Democrats could count on him to vote for the COV package with reconciliation — no Republican votes.

WEASEL WORDS

What he said to Bret Baier was nothing more than adept use of weasel words.

“Bret, what I have told everybody, I made it very clear from the President of the United States to all of my colleagues, we’re gonna make this work in a bipartisan way,” Manchin responded. “My friends on the other side are going to have input. And, we are going to do something that we agree on. I’m not going to do it just down the lines, just a party line vote. It has to make sense.”

He also claimed he doesn’t agree with the $15 an hour wage which is in the bill as one reason he wouldn’t vote for it.

He tells his people what they want to hear and then does the opposite.

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