Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders tore into his colleague from West Virginia, Joe Manchin, in a fiery Sunday news interview where the progressive lawmaker also condemned President Joe Biden’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia.
Sanders clashed with ABC News This Week anchor Martha Raddatz when she ventured to bring up Manchin’s ‘abrupt’ opposition to Biden’s climate change measures that Democrats had been negotiating on the sidelines for months.
‘He didn’t abruptly do anything,’ Sanders shouted over Raddatz’s attempt to ask about the conservative Democrat. ‘He has sabotaged the president’s agenda.’
He accused Manchin and his fellow conservative Democrat senator, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, of ‘intentionally’ going against ‘what the American people want.’
Sanders also wrote off Manchin’s concerns about a spending package’s impact on soaring inflation as ‘nonsense.’
But Biden wasn’t spared Sanders’ dissatisfaction either. On Saturday the commander-in-chief returned from his a visit to the Middle East, where he met with Israeli leaders and embarked on a controversial trip to Saudi Arabia – despite his campaign trail promise to make the Arab nation a ‘pariah’ over the 2018 killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
‘No, I don’t think so,’ he said about whether Biden should have gone.
Citing Khashoggi’s violent murder, Sanders said ‘I don’t think that that type of government should be rewarded with a visit by the President of the United States.’
The self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist conceded that gas prices – despite dropping off in recent weeks – remain painfully high for most families. But rather than see opportunity in Saudi Arabia and its de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, Sanders suggested the US crack down on energy companies and their record profits.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders tore into his colleague Joe Manchin during a fiery interview on ABC News following the latter’s opposition to Democrats’ climate change proposals
‘We’ve got to tell the oil companies to stop ripping off the American people and if they don’t, we should impose a windfall profits tax on them,’ Sanders said.
For months Democrats have argued that the most permanent solution to rising gas prices is accelerating the shift to clean energy.
Transitioning the country away from fossil fuels and lowering carbon emissions, particularly in light of the worsening effects of climate change, was a cornerstone of Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign.
But after months of negotiation at the highest levels, Manchin torpedoed Democrats’ chances of passing Biden’s climate agenda in Congress on Thursday when he reportedly told Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that he would not support such provisions in their party’s budget bill.
Manchin, a conservative Democrat from West Virginia, told Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday that he is opposed to climate change proposals in a potential spending bill
The Senate’s 50-50 split means virtually every Democrat needs to vote in lock-step to pass a majority of Biden’s more progressive agenda items. It’s also given Manchin and Sinema an outsized influence over their party.
‘Six months ago, I made it clear that you have people like Manchin – Sinema to a lesser degree – who are intentionally sabotaging the president’s agenda, what the American people want, what a majority of us in the Democratic caucus want,’ Sanders said.
‘Nothing new about this. And the problem was, that we continue to talk to Manchin like he was serious. He was not’
Manchin and Sinema’s opposition has been responsible for tanking Democrats’ attempts to codify voting rights, abortion protections and pass Biden’s ambitious spending plan known as Build Back Better.
Manchin shooting down the climate provisions on Thursday prompted a flurry of criticism from his fellow Democrats – including an enraged Sanders.
‘This is a guy who is a major recipient of fossil fuel money, a guy who has received campaign contributions from 25 Republican billionaires,’ the Vermont senator said.
Sanders dismissed Manchin’s explanation that he was acting out the will of West Virginians and reacting to the soaring cost of consumer goods – which rose an average 9.1 percent in June from the year before.
It was ‘the same nonsense that Manchin has been talking about for a year,’ the progressive lawmaker said.
‘West Virginia – it’s a beautiful state, and I’ve had the pleasure of being there. Great people. It is one of poorest states in this country.’
Sanders also criticized President Joe Biden’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia, citing the Kingdom being allegedly implicated in Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder
Inflation in the U.S. rose to 9.1 percent in June, the highest since 1981 and above what economist had predicted. Sanders dismissed Manchin’s inflation concerns as ‘nonsense’
He insisted that its residents would benefit from provisions like expanded Medicare and higher taxes for the ultra-wealthy and large corporations.
‘Ask the people of West Virginia whether or not all people should have health care as a human right, like in every other country on Earth. That’s what they will say,’ Sanders said.
‘In my humble opinion, you know, Manchin represents the very wealthiest people in this country, not working families in West Virginia or America.’
And Sanders warned that Manchin’s opposition to the climate change proposals will have ramifications on ‘the future of the planet.’
‘So, when Manchin sabotages climate change, this is the future generations what’s going on right now. In the West, all over the world, we’re looking at significantly increased – more and more heat waves. You’d have to look at more flooding. This is an existential threat to humanity,’ he explained.
Sanders’ closing message was a public call to voters to elect ‘more progressive Democrats’ in future elections – another veiled jab at the Southern centrist.
The president promised last week to take ‘strong’ action to slow the effects of climate change after Manchin’s about-face.
‘If the Senate will not move to tackle the climate crisis and strengthen our domestic clean energy industry, I will take strong executive action to meet this moment,’ Biden said in a statement.