Meet Joe Manchin, the Democrats' deciding vote on just about everything
“He’s kind of the Democratic version of John McCain,” said Sen. Tester. "Joe’s a hard guy to figure out how to lead. You know? He dances to his own music.”
Senators watch his TV hits to figure out what's going on in. As critical to understanding agenda as anything
“Joe loves to be in the middle of the action. And if you’re unsure about what he’s thinking in that moment, just turn on any TV set and there he is,” said Sen. Capito
Manchin has spoken to Biden several times over the past week. He relayed one about Biden lamenting how working with GOP on ACA was fruitless
“Joe, I don’t have time to do that again,” Biden told Manchin.
Manchin replied: “I respect that Mr. President, I really do.”
Major limits to what Manchin will over next month on covid relief
“I was more than willing to do [vote for the budget] to help the president,” Manchin said. “But he knows I’m going to do everything I can to make it bipartisan and I will protect the Byrd Rule at all costs.”
Here's how his friends Sen. Collins sees Manchin's predicament: "e’s a person you can count on... It can’t be easy for him to be in a caucus where the leader is putting enormous pressure on all of its members to toe the party line regardless of the merits.”
No, Manchin doesn't particularly live Schatz calling him "your highness"
“They just kid around. None of that does anything for me. It’s just a little friendly chit-chat back and forth,” Manchin said. “I didn’t lobby for this position, I didn’t pick it.”
Manchin finally has a president he works with and talks to and a Senate leader that understands where he's coming from. He famously declared of the Senate "This place sucks." Does it still suck given the circumstances?
“That hasn’t changed,” he said
Finally, Manchin is pretty darn adamant that if even if the parliamentarian lets Dems do minimum wage increase in covid bill, it won't be $15
“I would amend it to $11. You know that. Because I think that’s basically a base that we should have in America right now,”
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Wow Cassidy absolutely goes off on Trump legal team
“The House managers were focused, they were organized ... they made a compelling argument. President Trump’s team, they were disorganized, they did everything they could but to talk about the question at hand”
“If I’m an impartial juror and one aide is doing a great job and the other side is doing a terrible job on the issue at hand, as an impartial juror I’m going to vote for the side that did a good job.”
I asked him to elaborate
“Did you listen to it? OK then it speaks for itself”
“Disorganized, random. They talked about many things but they didn’t talk about the issue at hand”
Republicans can and probably will bring this up again on covid aid package.
“if you are the legal child, citizen of the United States, of an undocumented person, should you receive a check? I say yes,” Durbin said. he will try “to explain it to those who voted the other way.”
Domingo Garcia, national president of LULAC: “We still have a lot of work to do in convincing a lot of senators in purple states.” He takes issue with Hickenlooper supporting amendment
“Colorado is a solid blue state. There is no need for him to be pandering to the right.”
First big Dem priority is at risk: $15 minimum wage. Might not get support of all 50 D senators, also possible issues with the parliamentarian in reconciliation. Manchin says he opposes, Sinema quiet, Kelly says he needs to see details
“What he said is one thing, but then you come to reality and gather more evidence and information,” Shelby said, reconciling McConnell’s criticisms of Trump with his vote against the trial’s constitutionality.
On Tuesday McConnell said only he’d listen to the trial arguments
McConnell declined to hold the trial in the immediate aftermath of the House’s vote. He believed doing so would short-circuit Trump’s due process for the trial. But in delaying the trial until after Trump left office, he also helped steer the GOP toward its dominant argument.
Senates Rs and Biden clearly get along, spending 2 hours together. But there's no indication that Biden is thinking about backing off reconciliation or $1.9T
Sen. Capito says in interview afterward: "He didn’t tell us that that’s not going to happen,”
GOP pitch to Biden was this: Work with us and "we can do this very quickly and that budget reconciliation will be messier. It’s very partisan and it could also be much lengthier," Capito says.
But Biden talked about how many times he's been through reconciliation as senator!
Biden open to more targeted checks, focusing on lower-income folks. But Psaki statement shows Biden is relatively uncompromising about size + scope
"Congress must respond boldly and urgently, and [Biden] noted many areas which the Republican senators' proposal does not address."
Former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial will be conducted on the Senate floor, live on TV. The Senate investigation into Sens. Cruz and Hawley will take place behind closed doors by one of the most secretive committees in Congress: Senate Ethics
The probe into whether the two senators played a role in inciting the violent Capitol attack will unwind over an interminable timetable with little hint of where it is going.
“Neither of us are going to talk about it at all,” said Lankford, vice chair. Coons is chairman
7 Dems argue Cruz and Hawley ‘lent legitimacy” to the cause of those who invaded Capitol. Hawley fired back with a counter complaint alleging “improper conduct” for partisan gain.
Asked about Hawley’s counter-complaint, Sen. Smith pointed at her face: "You see my eye rolling?"