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Democratic Leaders Have Done Nothing to Stop Joe Manchin

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Democratic Leaders Have Done Nothing to Stop Joe Manchin

Don't buy the rotating villain theatrics. The Democratic Party has empowered the West Virginia coal baron to protect the status quo.

Peter Daou
Feb 8, 2022
20
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Democratic Leaders Have Done Nothing to Stop Joe Manchin

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Photo By Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

To Republicans, Joe Manchin is a welcome obstacle to progressive policies. To Democratic and liberal voters, Manchin is the worst person in the world, preventing Joe Biden from becoming the next FDR. To leftists, Manchin is just another rotating villain, a designated scapegoat to preserve the status quo and give the Democratic Party cover for serving corporate interests.

Twitter avatar for @berningmama412
BerningMama412♻️ @berningmama412
@POTUS We don’t believe your platitudes. Manchin, Sinema, parliamentarian? Who will be the rotating villain this time so nothing will fundamentally change?
4:36 PM ∙ Feb 5, 2022
Twitter avatar for @KursedYvan
Gabriel @KursedYvan
@dbhhdbtn @sir_galahad1959 @BidenTracking 1/The issue is that Democrats always magically find these obstructionists, when their platforms goes against the donor class. 30 + years, same recipe. And we keep falling for it without making anyone accountable. We knew before inauguration that Manchin would be rotating villain
1:08 PM ∙ Feb 8, 2022

A new POLITICO story offers substantial evidence supporting the leftist view of Manchin. If Democratic leaders didn’t want Manchin to have so much power, why is he still Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee?

Selling scrap coal has earned Manchin millions of dollars over three decades, and he has used his political positions to protect the fuel — and a single power plant in West Virginia that burns it — from laws and regulations that also threatened his family business. It continues today.

Manchin has used his office to enrich himself for decades:

Manchin’s political power over the clean energy sector has national implications today. But he has wielded his influence for years. And one of his main goals has always been to protect coal … in the last year of the Obama administration, Manchin successfully sidetracked a plan to give EPA more power to prevent heavy metals from leaching into ecosystems through coal ash regulations.

In a deep dive on Manchin’s “dirty empire,” the Intercept reports:

Manchin’s advocacy for relaxing environmental regulations on the coal industry extends well beyond coal ash. In at least one instance, that advocacy was linked to the interests of the Edison Electric Institute, or EEI, an energy producer trade group tied directly to Manchin coal, as Sludge reported in July. 

Environmental reporter Mark Hertsgaard asks the obvious question:

Should any lawmaker with such a sizable financial conflict of interest wield decisive influence over what the US government does about a life-and-death issue like the climate emergency? Shouldn’t there be public discussion about whether that lawmaker should recuse himself from such deliberations?

Despite the uproar over Manchin’s intransigence in the face of the Build Back Better Act, the Democratic Party has steadfastly refused to exert meaningful pressure on him. They haven’t threatened his chairmanship; they haven’t backed a primary challenger; and they haven’t warned that they would look into his brazen self-enrichment. The only reasonable conclusion is that they want things this way.

Twitter avatar for @Focusfire187
Louden @Focusfire187
@RexChapman Manchin has faced zero consequences from leadership. Dems allow him to head the energy committee in the Senate as a coal baron, Biden isn't publicly calling him out constantly or visiting WV to apply pressure & Manchin's daughter hasn't been charged for price-fixing the EpiPen.
9:05 PM ∙ Dec 19, 2021
Twitter avatar for @USElves
Jamie Sutliff @USElves
@robreiner Are you aware @Sen_JoeManchin runs on corporate bribes? His daughter was CEO of Epipen when prices soared from $17 per vial to over $600 in 2 days. Manchin violates article 3 of the 14th amendment he is a crook and the sad part is the dems know and ignore it.
1:49 AM ∙ Jan 7, 2022
Twitter avatar for @shrikex0r
↙️↙️↙️Yes ALL cops↙️↙️↙️ @shrikex0r
@spiritchance @InSeattleD2 @not_conjecture @brianbeutler We have plenty of leverage over Manchin. He’s laughably corrupt and his daughter was directly responsible for EpiPen price gouging. He’s a god damn criminal as is his whole family — that’s leverage. Dems just aren’t willing to use it.
10:01 PM ∙ Dec 15, 2021

If anything, Biden and Manchin are friends and allies:

“They’re very similar creatures,” said one Democrat who is familiar with their relationship. “If there was ever a similar Democrat in the White House, Joe Biden’s Manchin’s guy. Manchin himself says he feels fondly for Biden. “We have a great relationship,” the senator said.

At a CNN town hall in October 2021, Biden said Manchin is "not a bad guy."

Twitter avatar for @peterdaou
Peter Daou @peterdaou
I repeat: Show me a single meaningful thing Dem leaders have done to truly pressure Manchin. He's still the CHAIRMAN of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Dems helped crush his primary challenger. And here's Biden defending him just two months ago:
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12:31 AM ∙ Dec 20, 2021
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Manchin gets his power from the Democratic leadership because they want it that way. How else can they uphold the corrupt system without becoming the targets of voter wrath?

Twitter avatar for @peterdaou
Peter Daou @peterdaou
The cold, brutal genius of framing Biden/Pelosi as the "good guys" and Manchin/Sinema as the villains. The truth? Biden, Pelosi, and Dem leaders have always punched left and crushed progressive challengers. Manchin and Sinema were elected with the Dem leadership's FULL support.
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3:46 PM ∙ Oct 7, 2021
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Democratic Leaders Have Done Nothing to Stop Joe Manchin

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