Earlier this week Joe Manchin
proved himself to be Joe Manchin by
writing in an op-ed that no,
he's not going to be eliminating
the filibuster or even weakening it
as he had implied earlier, about
a month ago, that he might do.
But then on top of that,
he had an interview where he talked
about why he is now so committed to
bipartisanship and it had to do
with something that happened
earlier this year, watch this.
>> January 6th changed me, and
I was very clear with everybody.
I never thought in my life,
I never read in history books,
to where our form of government had
been attacked at our seat of
government, which is Washington DC
at our Capitol, by our own people.
Now the British did it, but
not Americans, so something told me
wait a minute, pause, hit the pause
button, something's wrong,
you can't have this many people
split to where they want to
go to war with each other.
>> Okay, so he changed on
the 6th as a result of that,
which is why he now has the exact
same positions he's had for
as long as I've been familiar with
him as a politician, Cenk.
It must have been a profound
experience to change so notly.
>> Yeah, well the second part of
that is, let me get this logic,
as it were, right.
So a bunch of Republicans break
into the Capitol to try to murder
the legislators and then you take
out of that I really gotta work
with the Republicans, it is time to
compromise with these guys who were
trying to murder me a couple
of months ago, I'm not positive you
learned the right lesson.
And third of all, all of this is
horse crap, none of it is true,
Joe Manchin is doing this of course
to protect his corporate donors and
that is the entirety of it.
The fact that our mainstream press
cannot even bring up that question,
let alone stating it as an obvious
reason for why he's doing what he's
doing, it's just pathetic.
>> I have always said that
Joe Manchin is as much a real
Democrat as Elizabeth Warren is
a Native American,
[LAUGH] which is hardly at all.
But this is the one thing that does
make him a Democrat, which is that
he's a turn the other cheeker.
The Democratic Party,
they're professional turn the other
cheekers to the point where it's
not even turning the other cheek,
it's like no, take my other arm,
and in fact take my
balls while you're at it.
It's like how many cheeks can we
frickin' turn at this point?
They literally busted down
the doors of the Capitol to try
to fill y'all and they're still
like no, but you know what, some of
them are fine people, I'm sure.
>> The Republican voters don't
respect that anyway,
what are they going to vote for
Manchin because they're like.
Like, if you go to West Virginia,
say, somebody pushed you and then
you said well then I want to work
with them and I want to give them
more, would you respect that guy?
Everybody in West Virginia would
say no, I'd lose respect for
that guy, let alone try to bust
down the door of your house and
try to kill you, right?
>> Yeah, and look, I think there's
a lot of nonsense in what he said
if you take him at face value that
he actually wants to compromise or
whatever.
Another way to look at it is that
a bunch of people stormed into
the place where he works and
terrorized the politicians, and
those politicians are now giving
the people who terrorized
what they want.
That's basically what he's doing,
they don't want any bills to pass
and he's going to give it to them.
And also, let's take him at what he
says and he says God, how have we
gotten in this position where
people would be willing to do that?
Well don't just ask rhetorical
questions, answer it, how
have we gotten to that position?
Why did the people in that crowd
believe what they believe,
the very specific, actionable
things that they believed?
We don't have to speculate, we
don't have to sift through desert
sands, we know exactly why they
believe all of those insane things,
because they were told those things
by Republican politicians and
people on Fox News, Newsmax,
and OANN.
And your solution has nothing
whatsoever to do with
changing their behavior.
If you don't reform the filibuster
does that mean that Newsmax is
going to become a responsible
member of the journalistic
community, or that Trump will find
a new respect for democracy, or
that all of the senators that voted
to overthrow the election
will suddenly greatly regret what
they did?
No, he doesn't even claim that, and
he certainly doesn't believe it,
no rational person could.
Instead, it's just let's not
do anything.
So he can't solve the problem he
says he's trying to solve,
which is why we then are forced to
try to come up with an idea of what
it is that he's trying to solve.
And I think that Cenk is right,
it's that he doesn't want these
bills to pass, he doesn't want
the corporate tax to go up,
he doesn't want any of this stuff
to actually happen.
>> Yeah, so look, I gotta clarify
the magnitude of this, I don't want
anybody walking away thinking
filibuster, it's a technical rule,
I don't know what that means.
No, that means that we cannot pass
any bills going forward, done,
Joe Biden's administration is done.
So I'll give you the example of
HR-1, so that's the For the People
Act, that's voting rights,
this is their number one priority,
right, it has nothing to do with
budget so it's not reconciliation.
And so it is a fact that every
single Republican in the Senate
opposes it and vehemently,
including any so-called moderates,
the idea that you can get ten
Republicans to vote for the For
the People Act is a joke.
I mean if Manchin says that
the reporter's next question be
Senator, why are you choosing to
lie when there's not a single
person on the planet who thinks you
can get ten Republicans to vote for
an Act that they deeply despise, so
it's an obvious lie.
So they can't even get their number
one priority passed, they can't get
anything passed if Manchin won't
move on the filibuster.
So there is nothing more important
than this because it ends the Biden
administration within the first 75
days, and that's Manchin
saying Joe Biden's not president,
I'm president, okay, and
I'm not a Democrat, you idiots.
And by the way,
he's not a Republican either, he's
a corporatist, he works for the
corporations who bribe him daily.
So I get frustrated with the media,
you guys know, you watch the show.
But look, people are always like
well, there's nothing we can do,
there's nobody in West Virginia
that could win as a Democrat, and
the people of West Virginia are so
conservative, it's just nonsense,
nonsense.
So is West Virginia more
conservative, of course it is, that
part is true, but those simpletons
in Washington stop right there.
No, go further, but
they're populist as well, how about
the issues he's talking about?
He said this particular example
that started all of this was
Joe Manchin said no way, man, I do
not want higher corporate taxes,
and could it be because almost all
your donors are giant corporations
and they gave you legalized bribes?
Or is it that the people of
West Virginia are so
conservative that they really,
really want lower taxes
on corporations, no, that's absurd,
we know the polling already.
If you're a reporter and
you don't know that the people of
West Virginia don't want to protect
corporations at all costs,
then you suck at your job because
you've never read a poll, you don't
know a thing about West Virginia,
and you let a guy like this lie to
your audience on the regular and
you get paid to propagate his lies.
Now one last thing, I'm turning to
the progressives in Congress,
I ran for office and
the press hated me, and
they said I was not civil enough.
Well they're right that I'm not
civil enough because if I had one,
and this is why I ran, as
apparently a futile effort as that
was but I gave it everything I had.
The reason I ran is because if I
was in Congress, today I'd be on
the floor of the House giving a
speech about Joe Manchin's top ten
donors, about how they're all giant
corporations who want lower taxes.
And then I would have a giant poll
up from West Virginia right next to
me showing the overwhelming
majority of people in West Virginia
want higher taxes on corporations,
higher taxes.
You liar,
I would say about Joe Manchin, but
is there a single progressive in
Congress that's willing to do that,
no is the answer, definitively no.
My God, that's your beloved,
cherished colleagues, you would be
so rude, well I wouldn't want to
break etiquette, would we?
>> How do you really feel, Cenk?
[LAUGH] How do you really feel?
>> Because, look, Helen,
you're right and it's funny.
But at the same time the reason is
not to get angry, the reason is not
to just insult Joe Manchin for
no reason.
They're so
simple minded in Washington,
they're like you're just venting.
No, how do you think
you're going to move his position,
by beseeching him?
If you think that just retire right
now, retire, you
don't know anything about politics.
No, you have to cause political
damage, the way you cause political
damage is you put a spotlight on
his weakness, that he takes bribes
from corporations.
Now they're legalized bribes, but
they're millions of dollars and
every real person, including every
real person in West Virginia, knows
in effect those are bribes and
no one, no one, no one, points
it out because my god, I wouldn't
want to ruffle feathers, right?
And so when you don't point it
out his poll numbers don't go down,
the only way you're going to get
him to change his position is if
his poll numbers go down.
Either everybody in
the Democratic Party, literally,
literally everyone in
the Democratic Party that is to
center and to the left doesn't know
one thing about politics or they're
just saying yeah, but It would hurt
my personal relationships, and
my personal friendships and
relationships are more important
than my voters.
That's what's happening right now
in Washington, and they hate me for
pointing out things that
are obviously true.
>> And the last final point,
because we gotta move on, is what
is supposed to be rule number one
for politicians, is that they will
do stuff for whatever ideology,
blah, blah, blah, but mainly it's
to increase their own power and to
maintain their position that's what
they want to do above all else.
And yet we know exactly where this
strategy leads, it leads with him
no longer being in the Senate
majority and it's not even going to
take a long time, it's going to be
like a year and a half and they
will lose the majority, he knows
that if they don't do anything
that's what's going to happen.
And yet he is following this path
anyway, he is willing to sacrifice
a significant amount of his
political power for whatever it is
that's actually motivating him, so
you know it's gotta be something
significant.
>> I don't know what you guys
are talking about, I mean anyone
who's been to West Virginia knows
that everybody in West Virginia is
just rolling in dough.
>> Yeah.
>> Exactly.
[LAUGH] >> Yeah,
they're so- >> because they're so
rich in West Virginia.
The average person is just so
rich in West Virginia that they're
like yeah, lower corporate taxes,
I can afford it,
no problem, increase my taxes.
No.
>> Joe Manchin said that they're
not for a higher minimum wage in
West Virginia, and
first of all the polling
showed exactly the opposite,
they're massively in favor of it.
But look at how comical it is and
look at how much our press sucks.
He says that the people of
West Virginia living in their
hollers are for lower wages, that
they're in favor of lower wages for
themselves, and the reporters go
okay, I will write it down, people
want lower wages, Joe Manchin is
an honorable, and respectful, and
wonderful moderate Democrat, and
he has to do all of this
because the people of West Virginia
demand lower wages and they love
corporations in the hollers.
>> I have said before that if you
brought up the $15 minimum wage,
if the $15 minimum wage took effect
in West Virginia you would bring
back the middle class in the entire
state of West Virginia.