Journalist Suggests Manchin Might Be Gunning For The White House

William Rivers Pitt of Truthout suspects that West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin’s destruction of the centerpiece of President Biden’s domestic agenda was not motivated by the fact that he is a prime supporter of the coal industry and that he was concerned with ballooning debt.

Photo Insert: A caricature of 'Moderate Democrat' Joe Manchin of West Virginia

In an article for the Dec. 24, 2021 issue of Truthout, Pitt said “put yourself in Manchin’s shoes. Your own seat is secure until 2024, so there is no need to run for anything next year. Over the long process of murdering the Build Back Better (BBB) Act, you raked in millions in campaign ‘donations’ from the energy lobby and other right-leaning interests, which means you’re flush enough to fund a national campaign.” It means gunning for Joe Biden’s post.

“The immediate concern is party affiliation. You’ve just Superman-punched a Democratic president’s great big liberal bill, making you the darling Democrat of the right, but you won’t win a Democratic primary running as the most hated man in the party. The solution: Switch party affiliation to Independent, but continue to caucus with the Democrats. This will keep the Senate under Democratic majority control until at least 2022, and opens up your potential field of voters to a broad swath of the populace,” Pitt added.

“As for that BBB Act? That’s your closing argument, if you’re him. Sometime in early January 2022, after the present bruises have eased, you will propose a new version of the act, priced under $2 trillion and featuring a number of the original bill’s most popular policy items — universal pre-K, an Obamacare expansion, billions to address climate change. Desperate to pass something, the Democrats will leap at the chance, and after Biden has signed it, you and you alone will be given credit for achieving a legislative impossibility,” Pitt concluded.

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