Prominent Progressive Puts Heat On Joe Manchin
Nina Turner to Manchin: What do you want to negotiate away?
A prominent politician from Ohio who is also a well-known progressive activist nationally called out recalcitrant Sen Joe Manchin in an on-air cable TV interview for continuing to block major legislation backed by the vast majority of Democrats.
Nina Turner, a former Buckeye State lawmaker who ran this summer for the Democratic nomination for a special election to Ohio's 11th Congressional District, asked during an interview with CNN just how much more compromise Manchin expects.
Democrats in Washington DC have, for weeks now, been intently trying to pass some version of their $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act, which would enact much of President Biden's domestic agenda ahead of next year's midterm elections.
However, Manchin — and fellow Democratic senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — have been holding out their support, which is crucial to get this legislation over the finish line.
“We are already at the compromise position, and that is what we must understand here. Look, the overwhelming majority of West Virginians agree with this,” Turner said. “West Virginia is one of the poorest states in the United States of America, and you have a senator who is set for the rest of his natural life, and so are his children and his children’s children, and he wants to negotiate away?
“Senator Manchin, what do you want to negotiate away? Is it childcare? Is it the implosion of Mother Earth? Is it health care? What is it? Brianna, he’s not saying what it is,” she added, speaking to her CNN interviewer. “So this is not about who is pragmatic and who is practical and who is progressive. This really is about in this moment, whose side you are on. Let the American people remember this: $6 trillion was the original number. We are down to $3.5 trillion.”
While it may seem counterintuitive, such pressure does seem to have some effect on Manchin.
Sen Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) is the chief architect of the Build Back Better Act, and Sanders is highly popular among West Virginia Democrats, given that he beat rival Hillary Clinton in the state’s 2016 Democratic presidential primary.
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