Washington Wednesday - The Manchin effect

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday, the 28th of April, 2021.

You’re listening to The World and Everything in It and we’re so glad to have you join us today! Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

First up: the balance of power in the U.S. Senate.

The Senate’s divided evenly between Republicans and Democrats: 50 seats apiece. But with Vice President Kamala Harris holding the tie-breaking vote, Democrats do have a slight advantage.

But that all hinges on Democrats voting together. Which doesn’t always happen. The senior senator from West Virginia is a maverick among Democrats, and frequently, he goes his own way.

REICHARD: Yeah, you might call Joe Manchin a thorn in his party’s side. Or the most powerful person in Washington.

This week, Joe Manchin is showing that. He’s flexing his political muscle to hold back President Biden’s nearly $2 trillion infrastructure spending package.

EICHER: Here’s Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on Fox News Sunday describing the negotiations over the bill.

GRAHAM: Watch Joe Manchin. Joe’s going to be a key player here. I met with him a couple of days ago.

REICHARD: Just about everyone in Washington wants to meet with Joe Manchin right now!

And joining us to talk about why is WORLD’s national editor, Jamie Dean. Good morning, Jamie!

JAMIE DEAN, REPORTER: Good morning, Mary.

REICHARD: Well, why?

DEAN: The short answer is that he has a lot of power. Now, Manchin’s power doesn’t really come from a specific leadership role or a committee appointment. It comes from being a wild card. Manchin is considered the Democratic swing vote in a Senate that’s divided 50/50. That means in some cases, Manchin might be the only Democrat willing to block some of his party’s most radical proposals. And since you can’t always be sure which way he’ll go, that makes him a very popular—and sometimes unpopular—lawmaker.

REICHARD: That sounds like a lot of pressure.

DEAN: It does, but it’s pressure that Manchin often seems to relish. He’s taken on an unofficial role as the guy who tries to get people together. When he’s in D.C., he lives on a houseboat called Almost Heaven. (I’m sure John Denver fans will catch that West Virginia reference.) And he’s is known to host these bipartisan happy hours, where he invites political opposites to come on board the boat and hang out. To some people, that probably doesn’t sound too much like heaven, but it is part of his image as the senator willing to talk to both sides of the aisle.

REICHARD: Okay, what about policy: Has he been willing to vote with Republicans?

DEAN: He has been willing. When President Trump won the election in 2016, Manchin visited him in Trump Tower in New York—much to the consternation of some Democrats. And he ended up voting to confirm most of Trump’s cabinet appointments. Manchin was one of three Democratic senators to vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, and the only Democrat to advance Justice Brett Kavanaugh. That made him quite unpopular with some Democrats during that contentious confirmation process. Now, he also showed a willingness to go against Trump, and that soured the former president on Manchin. Late last year, Manchin voted against confirming Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. He said he thought the selection of a justice should wait until after the presidential election that was right around the corner.

In 2020, Manchin voted to convict Trump after his impeachment. That definitely soured the president on Manchin, and Trump nicknamed him “Joe Munchkin.”

REICHARD: That wasn’t Manchin’s first nickname, though, right?

DEAN: No it wasn’t. A year after he endorsed Hillary Clinton for the presidency in 2015, Clinton declared her energy policies were “going to put a lot of coal miners out of business.” As you might imagine, that wasn’t a popular campaign promise in West Virginia’s coal country. When Manchin expressed displeasure, but maintained his endorsement of Clinton, some constituents called him “Traitor Joe.”

REICHARD: Well, let’s talk about his constituents a bit. Is it surprising that a Democrat would hold a Senate seat in West Virginia?

DEAN: Not until recently. West Virginia had been friendly ground for Democrats for years. Manchin’s predecessor, Sen. Robert Byrd, was a Democrat who served in the Senate for 50 years. Certainly, many West Virginians would consider themselves moderate or conservative. In 2012, Republican Mitt Romney won West Virginia by about 26 percentage points in the presidential election. In 2016, Trump won the state in a landslide. Even so, Manchin managed to hang onto his Senate seat in 2018, when a lot of people thought a Democrat might be vulnerable in a state that a Republican president won so handily. But Manchin has a long history of political leadership in the state, and he has cultivated a following that has stayed loyal to him in the voting booth. It’s part of why Democrats in D.C. tolerate Manchin: If they want a Senate seat in West Virginia, they know they need Manchin to win.

REICHARD: But at the same time, I’m sure they also want him to vote with them in D.C.

DEAN: They do, and this brings us back to Manchin’s powerful role at the moment. Since Democrats control the White House and Congress, they’d like to pass lots of legislation. But Manchin has pushed back on some of their most sweeping ideas. He bucked President Biden’s call for raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour in the coronavirus relief package in February.

Manchin said he wouldn’t defund the police, or pay for a Green New Deal, or vote for Medicare for All. He’s pushing back on Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan, saying it’s too expensive. He’s said in the past that he couldn’t vote for the Equality Act as it’s currently written. That’s legislation that many view as a direct attack on religious liberty. And perhaps most notably, he’s refused to budge so far on Democratic calls to eliminate the filibuster. The filibuster is the legislative provision that requires a 60-vote threshold to move forward with most forms of major legislation. As long as that’s intact, Democrats aren’t going to be able to push forward many of their proposals with a simple majority.

REICHARD: That must please Republicans.

DEAN: It does, but you have to remember that Manchin is still voting with Democrats as well. One episode that’s been particularly distressing to some Republicans was Manchin agreeing to vote for the COVID-19 relief bill without the Hyde Amendment attached.That’s the provision aimed at prohibiting federal funding for most abortions.In the past, Manchin has voted for budgets that would allow funding for Planned Parenthood, but has said that’s contingent on the Hyde Amendment being attached.In the COVID bill, Democrats didn’t attach Hyde, but Manchin wound up voting for the legislation in the end.

REICHARD: Does Manchin consider himself pro-life?

DEAN: He does, but his record his mixed on that issue. As I just mentioned, he’s voted for budgets that allow for funding Planned Parenthood. Even with the Hyde Amendment attached, most pro-life advocates aren’t in favor of giving taxpayer funds to the nation’s largest abortion facilitator. Pro-life advocates were also unhappy when Manchin voted to confirm Xavier Becerra as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Beccera is the former attorney general of California who filed the felony charges against David Daleiden for his organization’s undercover videos about Planned Parenthood. Manchin said he voted to confirm Becerra because he thinks Becerra will uphold the Hyde Amendment. Becerra is only bound to uphold Hyde if lawmakers continue to include it in legislation. We know that Biden and other Democrats have already called for eliminating Hyde long-term. So you can see why so many consider Manchin a wild card, and why it will be important to keep watching him over the months ahead.

REICHARD: Jamie Dean is WORLD national editor and our chief political reporter. Jamie, as always, thank you.

DEAN: My pleasure.

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