On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) stated that Democrats decided workers in West Virginia were “not good enough, we’re not green enough, we’re not smart enough,” and Democrats used to focus on “having a good job, having a safe place to work, having good benefits, take care of your family. All of a sudden, that wasn’t the priority,” and the inflation was caused by Democrats overspending in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic because “they had a social agenda they were going for.”
Manchin said, “I said, if you want to know what happened to the Democratic Party, look at West Virginia. We flipped more and faster and further than any state has flipped in one decade, from 75% majority of Democrats to 75-80% majority of Republicans. And I was asked one time what happened to the West Virginia Democrats? And I said, they want to know what happened to the Washington Democrats. First of all, now, we’ve done all the heavy lifting, we’ve worked hard, and now we’re not good enough, we’re not green enough, we’re not smart enough, and I guess you just don’t need us anymore, and they left. So, they forgot about who brung them. There’s an old saying, dance with who brung ya’. The Democrat[ic] Party always protected the worker. That was how we grew up, and, as that lifelong Democrat, took care of basically having a good job, having a safe place to work, having good benefits, take care of your family. All of a sudden, that wasn’t the priority, and when that left, they left. And that’s what happened.”
He added, “[I]nflation was happening because we were sending checks to everybody. We had them all sequestered into their homes, to where they couldn’t move, because of the pandemic. And then, when we did have a vaccine that worked, we weren’t putting people back to work. We were giving them protection of unemployment benefits far longer than it should have been. It was a perfect storm. And I said, this is not rocket science, guys. They didn’t want to hear that. And they had a social agenda they were going for. So, the bottom line is, I hope they learn from their mistakes. And I hope that, if we have a crisis again, we can manage it better than we did. We’ve learned from that, let’s move forward. I’m not blaming anybody. I’m not looking and castigating someone’s campaign or how they ran it or should have run it. The bottom line is, we have a new president. We have Donald Trump as our 47th president. Let’s make sure we understand, that’s our president, whether you voted for him or not, whether you like him or not, whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, or an Independent. It doesn’t matter. We’ve got to do everything we can to make this government the best that it can be. The world depends on us right now. And I think that, basically, he’s putting some good people in. I’m going to work with them and help them in any way I can. If they reach out, and if they would ask, what do you think about this, this, and this? I can tell you how we put bills together.”
He further stated, “[T]he…American Rescue Plan, that was $1.9 trillion on top of the 3.2 trillion that we spent in 2020. That was too much. But it happened, okay. It shouldn’t have. But it happened. And I hope that President Trump and the Republican administration doesn’t jump right into reconciliation, basically throwing the Democrats to the side, don’t need you at all.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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