America's infrastructure is crumbling faster
than a Nature Valley bar,
which is why Joe Biden has released
an ambitious plan to rebuild.
His new infrastructure bill covers not just roads
and bridges but also manufacturing,
high-speed Internet, green energy,
and even home health care for the elderly.
And, yeah, I know that that last one isn't really infrastructure,
but, come on, you know, Biden had to throw a little something
in there for himself.
You know what I mean?
So this bill would be a huge investment in America.
But because it costs more than $2 trillion
and might actually help people,
no Republican senators are expected to vote for it.
The good news for Biden is
that this is one of those bills that the Democrats could pass
with a simple majority,
which they do have in the Senate.
The bad news is one of those votes has to be Joe Manchin,
West Virginia senator and owl on a job interview.
And, right now, Joe Manchin isn't too happy with the bill.
Joe Manchin might be a roadblock to the infrastructure plan.
The one man who may control the fate of President Biden's agenda
is not making life easy for his fellow Democrats.
Senator Joe Manchin has continued to rail
against a 28% proposed corporate tax hike to pay for this thing.
He thinks this will be broken up into three bills,
because one of the big arguments is that some things
like childcare and housing
aren't technically infrastructure.
Look, he is that 50th vote for Democrats,
and Chuck Schumer, the majority leader,
can't pass anything that Biden sends over without Joe Manchin.
You hear that?
The entire fate of this infrastructure bill
rests in the meaty hands of Joe Manchin.
And it's not just infrastructure.
If Joe Biden wants anything passed,
from gun control to raising the minimum wage
to making Levar Burton the host of Jeopardy,
he has to get Joe Manchin on board.
Basically, if the Democrats are Britney Spears,
then Joe Manchin is their dad,
which makes Joe Manchin the most powerful person in America.
Well, second to the guy at CVS
who has the key to the razor shelf. Whew.
But who is Joe Manchin?
And, more importantly, why is Joe Manchin?
Well, let's find out in our brand-new segment
Please Allow Me to Introduce Yourself.
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Joe Manchin first rose to prominence
as the governor of West Virginia,
before getting elected to the Senate in 2010.
And while all senators talk
about reaching across the aisle,
Manchin has made it a personal mission.
Joe Manchin believes in working across the aisle
and has relationships.
He wants to focus on trying to get, um, you know,
Democrats and Republicans to work in the same room.
He has been part of some bipartisan groups
that have been trying to come up with some kind of legislation
that can get, uh, support in the Senate from both parties.
CHRIS CUOMO: Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine
and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia,
they are the newly announced honorary co-chairs
of No Labels,
a group advocating bipartisan solutions in Washington.
Everything No Labels does is in a bipartisan way.
It's not from one side ideologically or the other.
We're in the radical middle.
That's right! Joe Manchin is in the radical middle!
He'll eat extra vanilla ice cream!
(whoops)
Now crank up the Ed Sheeran
and make a reasonable amount of noise!
I will say, the term "radical middle"
is a great way to trick your friends
into riding bitch, isn't it?
Ooh, the middle back seat.
Ooh, so radical.
Both of your legs are gonna be touching one of ours.
Ho-ho!
But if I'm completely honest here,
Manchin is kind of right.
It is radical to be in the middle
during this time in American politics.
I mean, Democrats and Republicans are further apart
than my nipples were after that botched boob job.
So the fact that he can agree with both sides,
that's extreme.
It's kind of like being a robot who's also Amish.
(robotically): "We are simple people
who believe in the old ways."
But even if the working across the aisle
is going out of fashion in Washington,
it makes Manchin very popular in West Virginia.
Although he's also popular there
because he looks out for his people's interests,
whether it's defending their coal mines or their reputations.
MTV's newest reality show Buckwild is being described
as a Jersey Shore: Appalachia.
One thing these shows have in common,
they stir up controversy before they go on the air.
As Chip Reid reports, a senator from West Virginia
is condemning the new program's view of his home state.
In no way, shape, or form is this reality
and definitely not reality in West Virginia.
If it was your state and these were your children,
how would you feel about it?
Okay, first of all,
I’m not sure that this is the best argument to make
if you care about your state's tourism industry.
"Don't believe the reality show. This place is boring as shit."
But, also, Manchin can relax,
because everyone is fully aware that reality TV isn't reality.
I mean, think about it.
The Bachelorette makes dating seem
like you go zip-lining with a woman and 30 other guys.
That's not real. Everyone knows that dating
is really just grabbing dinner with a woman
and 30 other guys.
Ain't nobody zip-lining.
But fighting for his state wouldn't be enough
if Joe Manchin supported standard Democratic policies.
Because, don't forget,
West Virginia is an extremely conservative state.
So anyone who wants to get elected there
has to be pretty conservative, too.
And Joe Manchin definitely is.
NEWSMAN: He'd actually said that he regretted, uh,
supporting Hillary Clinton,
said he might be open to supporting Donald Trump
in 2020 if he agrees with him on a number of issues.
NEWSWOMAN: Joe Manchin tweeting this.
"Defund the police? Defund my butt."
NEWSMAN 2: He opposed some of President Obama's
energy policies and has supported gun rights.
When President Trump brought a bipartisan group
to the White House, Manchin, Senator Manchin
from West Virginia, is the first, uh, Democrat to say,
"All right, I’m on board. I want a wall."
I'll cut federal spending,
and I'll repeal the bad parts of Obamacare.
I sued EPA, and I'll take dead aim
at the cap and trade bill.
Okay, first of all, can we just stop this thing
where politician shoots bills in their ads?
It's tacky.
It's also kind of disrespectful to the staff at Kinkos.
But it's people like Joe Manchin that make you realize
America needs more than two major parties.
Because he doesn't seem to totally fit into either one.
I mean, think about it.
Joe Manchin is in the same party as AOC.
Imagine if other industries worked like this.
Like, to have a career in music,
you had to either join BTS or the Wu-Tang Clan.
I mean, Billie Eilish is like,
"But I don't fit into either of those."
You got to choose, Billie! You got to choose!
So, Manchin is in the Democratic Party,
but he doesn't really get along with the Democratic Party.
In fact, I'm sure there are moments that get really tense
when he walks by the Democrats in the cafeteria.
There's probably one seat left empty at the table,
and Bernie always puts his giant mittens on it.
I'm once again asking you to sit somewhere else.
So, Joe Manchin is pushing conservative ideas
and preventing Democrats from passing their bills.
The question is, then, why do they put up with him?
Do they love his homemade gazpacho?
Is he the only tenor in the Senate barbershop quartet?
Or could he be the only Democrat with the upper body strength
to open a pickle jar?
No, it's mostly because,
when it comes to Democrats from West Virginia,
he's the best they're ever gonna get.
Joe Manchin coming from a state
that Donald Trump won with 68% of the vote.
He's the only Democrat who could win in West Virginia,
uh, so therefore, he's sort of an immovable object.
Joe Manchin is one of the 50 Democratic, uh, votes.
He's the only Democrat who can get elected
to the Senate in... from West Virginia,
and so they got to deal with Joe Manchin.
Yeah, Joe Manchin may be a pain in the ass
who wants everything done his way, but without him,
the Democrats wouldn't have a majority at all,
and then, they wouldn't get anything passed.
He's like that annoying kid on your block who had a pool.
Yeah, he hogged all the noodles
and wouldn't let anyone use the diving board,
but without him, there's no pool party,
and then, you're just running through the sprinkler
like a little bitch.
So that's Joe Manchin, party pooper, radically boring
and the most powerful man in America.
And you might not like him,
you might wish he were someone else,
but if you don't want all the roads and bridges to collapse,
well, you got to get in his pool.