Fox News contributor Guy Benson said Monday that the White House may have miscalculated its response to Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) following the news that he would not vote for President Joe Biden’s signature policy priority, the Build Back Better Act.
Manchin told anchor Bret Baier on “Fox News Sunday” that he could not continue to support the behemoth spending package moving forward, citing concerns about rising inflation and claiming that he could not justify a vote for anything he felt he could not explain to the people of West Virginia.
“This is a no on this legislation,” Manchin said, adding that both he and President Biden had tried to come up with a solution, but they just had not been able to make it happen.
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — who had initially pushed for a $6 trillion spending package — responded immediately, suggesting Manchin was a coward and accusing him of not having the “guts” to stand up to special interests and lobbyists.
But the real venom came from the White House, in the form of a blistering statement from press secretary Jen Psaki:
Just as Senator Manchin reversed his position on Build Back Better this morning, we will continue to press him to see if he will reverse his position yet again, to honor his prior commitments and be true to his word.
In the meantime, Senator Manchin will have to explain to those families paying $1,000 a month for insulin why they need to keep paying that, instead of $35 for that vital medicine,” Psaki continued. “He will have to explain to the nearly two million women who would get the affordable day care they need to return to work why he opposes a plan to get them the help they need. Maybe Senator Manchin can explain to the millions of children who have been lifted out of poverty, in part due to the Child Tax Credit, why he wants to end a program that is helping achieve this milestone—we cannot.
Benson joined the panel discussion on Fox News’ “Outnumbered,” and he argued that the White House might have gotten out a bit over its skis in that response.
“That statement that she put out was blistering and I would say somewhat shocking, actually,” Benson said. “Manchin’s decision was not shocking because you are right, Kayleigh, he’s been telegraphing it for months, and he put it in writing in a statement signed by Chuck Schumer. We knew what his demands were and Build Back Better did not come close to those demands, so he decided to pull the plug. Maybe we will see something next year very pared down, not really close to BBB, more in line with what Manchin said, but his decision here was not shocking.”
“The calculation of the White House, though: mind-blowing,” Benson continued. “They still need Joe Manchin’s vote on literally everything. It’s a 50-50 Senate. They are accusing him of being a liar and acting in bad faith.”
“In that same interview there is an interesting quote that I will read. He was talking about his place moving forward within the Democratic Party and he said, ‘I would like to hope’ that he still belongs to the party but talking about progressives, if there’s no Democrats like me, paraphrasing, then they — meaning the progressives — ‘will have to push me wherever they want me,’ which is an eyebrow raiser, is it not?”
“A huge eyebrow raiser,” former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany agreed.