Thread by @awprokop

Democratic leaders have tried everything to win over Manchin — everything except actually addressing the key demand he's made for months.

(Yes they've made significant concessions to him. But they tried to handwave past this one.)

https://twitter.com/EricLevitz/status/1473316449716518913

Here’s a key moment in this saga.

10/24: Biden, Manchin, and Schumer meet in Wilmington. WH later claims Manchin agrees to support Biden’s new BBB framework here.
10/28: Biden announces framework
11/01: Manchin trashes the framework

So what happened?

I see two possibilities here.

1) Manchin was inconsistent. He told the WH he'd be fine with all this. But a week later, he decided he wasn't.
2) The extent of the framework's reliance on temporary programs to meet the cost cap was not made clear to him in the private meeting

The major concession in the framework Biden announced 10/28 was dropping paid leave. But the rest followed the "do almost everything else, but make it short-term" approach that characterizes the House bill.

The WH clearly *hoped* this was good enough for Manchin to settle for

WH hoped BBB framework could lead to final deal, but in short term its purpose was to get the House to pass the infrastructure bill.

Interestingly, Manchin publicly trashed the framework *before* the infra vote. But progs decided to trust WH assurances he was privately on board

The case for "bad faith Manchin" would probably be stronger if he had waited until after the infrastructure vote to make these criticisms of the BBB framework. But he did it beforehand (the day before the VA/NJ elections), while the House still had his infrastructure bill hostage

Worth re-reading Manchin's public comments on 11/1. Very clearly not supporting Biden's framework. Very clearly unhappy with the temporary programs approach. Called it "a recipe for economic crisis."

Still there was a hope, now dashed, that he could be won over with minor tweaks