Senator Joe Manchin, a conservative
Democrat in the Senate is bought
off by the fossil fuel industry.
There's no question about it,
you just see the dollar signs and
it tells you all you need to know.
Now, despite his massive conflicts
of interest, he is now claiming
that no, he's not bought off.
He's playing defense
because Representative Alexandria
Ocasio Cortez called him out for
being beholden to the fossil fuel
industry.
Now, I love this video because
here's Joe Manchin playing defense.
>> I'm sure you've heard your
fellow Democrat Congresswoman
Alexandria Ocasio Cortez said
this about you in a tweet.
Manchin has weekly huddles with
Exxon and is one of many senators
who gives lobbyists their pen to
write so called bipartisan fossil
fuel bills.
It's killing people.
Sick of this bipartisan corruption
that masquerades as clear-eyed
moderation.
She's your fellow Democrat.
Is it true that you have weekly
meetings with Exxon and
other absolutely lobbyists?
>> No, they don't weekly meetings.
>> It's just false.
>> I keep my door open for
everybody.
It's totally false.
And those types of superlatives,
it's just awful.
Continue to divide, divide, divide.
I don't know the young lady that
well, I really don't.
I've met her one time, I think,
between sets here, but that's it.
So we have not had
any conversations.
She's just speculating and
saying things because she wants-
[CROSSTALK] >> She's not the only
one, I'm sure you've heard.
There are a number of your
fellow Democrats who say
that you're opposed to this because
you're bought and paid for
by corporate donors.
>> I'm opposed to it because it
makes no sense at all.
>> That was fantastic and it shows
you the type of leverage and
power that progressive lawmakers
can have if they are willing to
call out their own when they're
more willing to basically protect
corporate interests as opposed to
the best interests of their own
constituents.
>> Okay, so this is great news.
We're now having
a national conversation
about whether Joe Manchin is
bought off by his corporate donors.
And so look, I think Dana Bash did
a really good job in that
interview, she was tough and asked
the questions you need to ask.
The next interview,
we might even get a follow up on
who his donors are, because once
you find out who the donors are,
it gets worse and worse.
I do know someone who'd asked that
question, we'll get to him later.
Fine, it's me.
>> You're unbearable, okay.
>> [LAUGH] Okay, no, but seriously,
this is really important.
And I only give that as an example
of what should happen
on a regular basis.
But no corporate Democrat was ever
asked about their donors until
Justice Democrats came in, and
now finally have brought
this issue forward.
And not just Justice Democrats,
wonderful progressives like
Katey Porter.
And now it forces,
what did I tell you guys?
It forces the media to
then ask them about it.
Now we're having the right
conversation, why is Joe Manchin
doing what he's doing?
And so I got so much more on that.
But thank you to AOC and
the others for us finally getting
to the heart of the matter,
what actually motivates them to
vote the way that they do >> Yeah,
and before I get to the second part
of Manchin's interview with CNN,
I do want to give you the tweet
that sparked this
conversation in the first place.
AOC had tweeted the following,
Manchin has weekly huddles with
Exxon and is one of many senators
who gives lobbyists their pen to
write so called bipartisan fossil
fuel bills.
It's killing people, our people,
at least 12 last night.
Sick of this bipartisan corruption
that masquerades as clear-eyed
moderation.
And of course she's responding to
Manchin's op-ed where he makes
clear that he is against
the $3.5 trillion
Budget Reconciliation bill.
Which includes incredibly important
provisions, including climate
action, paid family leave and
expansion of Medicare to include
dental and vision.
And so I love the fact that she
hit pretty hard in that tweet, it
apparently had an effect and here's
the second part of the interview.
>> Your own facts, I mean,
your own opinions.
You're just not entitled to create
your own facts to support it.
And that's exactly what
they're doing.
The facts I've given you is
the transition's happening.
Reliability, look
what happened in Texas.
It was natural gas that basically
shut down in Texas that caused all
that horrible carnage to people.
It was awful.
>> You have said, pause.
What the Senate wants to do is get
this worked out by this week so
that the House can vote on it
September 27.
Is that a timeline that you can
support in any way?
>> There's no way we can get this
done by the 27th if we do our job.
There's so
much differences that we have here.
They're so much apart from us where
we are as far as I'm giving you
different things, I've been talking
and working with people.
I'm willing to talk to people,
it makes no sense at all.
>> There's so
much to unpack in that clip.
And I want to debunk much of
what he had to say, which means,
you know what, it's time to
take a trip to the debunker.
>> You didn't see Republicans when
we had control of the Senate try to
rig the game.
>> Shows how the Green New Deal
would be a deadly deal for
the United States of America.
>> Our systems are not racist.
[MUSIC]
>> So, Cenk, two quick things I
want to mention
before I toss to you.
Number one, this is a side note.
But Manchin in a very weaselly way
just said that people died in Texas
during that winter storm because of
the natural gas failing the people
of Texas.
No, it's a deregulated privatized
energy grid that failed the people
of Texas.
Since it was deregulated,
it was not weatherized to withstand
the temperatures that Texans were
experiencing during that
winter storm.
That's a side note.
Getting back to the $3.5 trillion
reconciliation bill.
He claims he has a problem with
the spending.
Then why didn't he
vote in favor of the framework for
that bill, which clearly stated
that it would spend $3.5 trillion.
Now he's backing away from it, and
gee, I wonder why?
Could it be that he has these
weekly meetings with his donors,
including Exxon-Mobil?
Which we'll get
to in just a second, Cenk.
>> Yeah,I like that line that
David Sirota had the other day.
We're now negotiating this with
a coal baron who lives on a luxury
yacht, and
that's who Joe Manchin is.
So when we are debunking him,
understand that he has,
as we've mentioned many times,
not just corporate contributions to
his campaigns, but personal money
invested in the coal industry.
So that's why he keeps saying,
it doesn't make any sense.
And in his way to be fair to him,
it doesn't for him,
he'd lose money.
Now we would save the planet, but
for him that doesn't make sense.
He doesn't want to lose any money.
So I want to contribute to this,
and going back to the first video
he said, I keep my door open.
And he said every week, look,
I don't know about every week.
[LAUGH] In other words,
yes you do meet with them all
the time with great regularity.
In fact, Jar of Jam Bengino,
a member here wrote in,
not weekly meetings.
Okay, so what is it bi-weekly then?
But it was very clear from his
answer, he said in the middle of
it, I keep my door open.
That means yes, I definitely
have meetings with lobbyists.
And so the superlatives are awful
when you point out the fact, and
later he
said facts are not negotiable.
But at that time he's like,
you want to point out a fact about
my regular meetings with lobbyists.
Well, that is just a superlative
and that is divide, divide, divide.
>> He don't like that.
>> Yeah, corruption not awful,
pointing out corruption, awful.
That is a normal talking point
in Washington, DC.
And if you notice, and
AOC later took umbrage with this.
He called her a young lady instead
of a Congresswoman.
Now, you can say, hey,
that's nitpicking.
But she made an interesting point,
AOC did, when she said,
now if I use age and gender,
would that seem okay?
So if I said I haven't met the old
man, [LAUGH] okay, but
I hear he says this.
And I was like, damn,
that's a really good point.
No one would find that acceptable.
And she further added, he's using
that kind of language not because
AOC needs a title or she needs some
respect in that sense.
But he's using it in a way to put
her down.
Like this young lady who doesn't
know how Washington works,
within the context of his answer.
It's clear that that's his
implication >> To diminish
the power she has really.
>> Yes, >> That's what
it's really about.
So I also want to remind you all of
something we learned about earlier
this year when a senior Exxon Mobil
lobbyist mentioned Joe Manchin by
name as he was interviewed for
what he believed was another
position at a different company.
Now, he didn't know he was
being recorded,
but here's what he had to say.
>> Who's the crucial guys for you?
>> Well, Senator Capito,
who's the ranking member of
Environmental Public Works,
Joe Manchin.
I talk to his office every week.
He is the kingmaker on this because
he's a Democrat from West Virginia,
which is a very conservative state.
And he's not shy about sort of
staking his claim early and
completely changed in the debate.
So on the Democrat side, we look
for the moderates on these issues.
So it's the Manchins,
it's the Sinemas, it's the Testers.
>> That's your Exxon Mobil
lobbyists just said that he speaks
to Joe Manchin every week.
Joe Manchin, the kingmaker,
speaks to him every week.
Seems like
Representative Ocasio Cortez was
absolutely correct in stating very
specifically how often Joe Manchin
meets with fossil fuel lobbyists.
>> And there's nothing
that Keith McCoy said there that's
really relevant.
Joe Manchin isn't normally shy
about it.
But here we've come to
an interesting intersection,
because he will go and take checks
from the Chamber of Commerce right
before a statement or
right after a statement.
Where he basically supports their
legislative priorities and
he kills corporate tax cuts, then
goes to the Chamber of Commerce and
just says, give me the money.
Now though,
he's been called out for his
corporate donors in the press for
the first time in national media.
And so before he was brazen about
it, because there's no downside.
You can go collect those checks
you can show it to people,
hey I just got bribed.
And the restaurant association is
a perfect example.
Right after he kills minimum wage,
he goes and
collects checks from them.
I mean normally if you had
a functioning press in America,
they'd be like, my God,
look at the outrage,
that looks outright bribery, right?
And Manchin used to
walk around with checks taped
to his head in Washington and
no one ever pointed it out.
And so now being pointed out by
a fellow Democrat,
then on CNN, my guess is he'll
be a little less brazen now.
So so we'll see if
he takes a couple of patches off of
his NASCAR suit, right?
>> Doubt it.
>> But there's no question that
Exxon Mobil lobbyists said, yeah,
that's my boy.
Okay, that's the guy we go to to
get Exxon Mobil a good hearing
under the dome, as they say.
Now one of the thing,
throughout that interview he kept
saying about how there's no urgency
for this three and
a half trillion dollar bill.
He said on the other hand,
there is urgency, and he kept using
the same word over and over again.
About the the $1 billion so
called bipartisan bill,
the 1 trillion.
>> Yeah, the corporate
handout bill.
>> Yeah, the corporate backed
one, right.
So why is he saying that?
Because he can say, yeah,
the three and a half trillion,
we're going to negotiate.
I'll do something along
those lines.
But later, let's vote on the one
that's corporate backed first.
Well, that's the oldest
trick in the book.
So he apparently thinks it's still
the old days where you can
do that trick.
And we're about to find out because
the old days were
like a minute ago.
So if the progresses say, no,
you're either passing them both at
the same time or you're not passing
your corporate backed one.
Then he'll find out it's
the new days and
he actually has to negotiate.
>> Well the good news is on that
same episode, the other Senator who
was interviewed was Bernie Sanders.
And during that interview, he made
abundantly clear that progressives
will not pass the bipartisan
corporate handout bill unless
they pass the $3.5 trillion budget
reconciliation bill.
They're not kidding, they're now on
the record multiple times making it
very clear that they are willing to
sink the bipartisan bill unless
they get exactly what they want
with the reconciliation bill.
Now look, they're going to
negotiate, are a few things likely
to be either cut down or
cut back a little in that bill?
It's likely, right?
The real question is to what
extent?
But nonetheless,
I do find it interesting that back
in 2017 Senator Joe Manchin was
asked point blank whether he is
influenced by his corporate donors.
He didn't really seem too scared of
that line of questioning.
Maybe he minimized independent
media in that case, but
I do want to remind you all of how
that interview went down.
>> You voted to repeal the stream
protection rule and your top donor
is First Energy that wound up
getting in some of degree trouble
for putting arsenic in a pond.
It seems like they would benefit
from the repeal of that regulation.
So did that have anything to do
with your vote?
>> No, Cenk I know it's hard to
believe and I know it's hard for
people to, I don't have any idea
who gives me money.
I don't solicit from the standpoint
you do this for me, quid pro quo.
That's never been me.
That's not my political mantra
at all.
>> This is the list of
your top donors.
I understand that you said you
don't do quid pro quo,
that was clear.
But you know who your top donors
are, right?
>> I do not.
>> You don't know who your top
donors are?
>> I do not, you're showing me
something I've never seen.
>> Okay so this is
from Open Secrets.
>> I know that is hard for
anyone to believe.
I do not.
>> I do not Cenks.
I do not.
>> He totally in
the dark about who his donors are.
I'm sure he has no idea as he's
fundraising for
his reelection campaigns.
I'm sure he has no idea at all.
>> Guys, if you Washington at all,
that is actually the most
outrageous fabrication anyone could
ever say.
>> I know it's hard to
believe, Cenk.
I know it's hard to believe.
>> And there's a good reason why
it's hard to believe.
>> No one should believe it.
[LAUGH] >> They know who their top
donors are with great specificity.
That is a one thing they are all
obsessed with.
The idea that that a sitting
senator wouldn't know who his top
donors are is a patently absurd.
And so I'm hoping that's the next
level we get to in mainstream media
where they can say, hey look,
here's a graphic of your top
donors.
It looks like there are a lot of
energy companies and
drug companies, and
it looks like your votes match
their interest nearly perfectly.
That's the interview we had here on
The Young Turks.
It was a little uncomfortable at
times, well,
that's called journalism.
>> And I just want to direct you
guys to one more piece of data
regarding campaign donations that
go to people like Joe Manchin,
specifically from fossil
fuel companies.
Analysis of campaign disclosures
found the six Democratic senators,
Senator Mark Kelly, Maggie Haasan,
Joe Manchin, Chris Coons,
Kyrsten Sinema and Jon Tester
received a combined total of nearly
$333,000 from lobbyists,
political action committees and
lobbying firms affiliated with
Exxon over the past decade.
So it's not just about Manchin,
Manchin just tends to be the most
vociferous in speaking out against
the $3.5 trillion
reconciliation bill.
But understand that corporate
Democrats in the Senate are and
will continue to be a problem,
unless they're taken to task over
their conflicts of interest.
Not just through corporate lobbying
and the money that they received
from legalized bribery, but also
from their personal investments in
fossil fuel companies.
Joe Manchin makes half a million
dollars a year alone from being
invested in a fossil fuel company,
in a coal company, and
that's a problem.
Obviously that's a conflict of
interest and he should be
completely divested from it.
But half a million dollars is more
than double what he receives
in Senate salaries.
So I doubt that's going to happen
unless laws are passed
to make it so.
We'll provide a link down
below in the description box for
that interview that I did with
Joe Manchin about four years ago,
it's really interesting.
Check it out if you can.
Always check out
the description box,
good links in there quite often.