Don't get a picture,
get a picture of us.
[NOISE] We're talking.
>> You're going to have a
resolution by the end of the week.
>> We're talking,
we're going to make some changes.
>> Sir are you prepared to make
some deep cuts to climate change
and other things like that?
>> Senators Bernie Sanders and
Joe Manchin got together for
a meeting to negotiate the budget
reconciliation bill, the same
budget reconciliation bill that
conservative Democrat Joe Manchin
has been a massive obstacle in
getting passed.
Now, Manchin clearly in that video
was pretty desperate for a photo op
with Bernie Sanders, and at first I
was a little confused about why.
But then I took a look at what the
constituents over in West Virginia,
like and Bernie Sanders happens to
be one of the people that
the constituents their love.
In fact if you look at
the Democratic primary in 2016
Bernie Sanders did quite well
with the Democratic electorate,
51.4% of Democrats favored Sanders
over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Now, the 2020 election, by the time
West Virginia held its primary,
Biden was the only candidate.
So there you have it.
But let's get back to the budget
reconciliation bill and
what's taking place.
As we shared with you earlier
this week, over the weekend,
Senator Bernie Sanders wrote an op
ed pressuring Manchin to support
the budget reconciliation bill and
he published it in
West Virginia's largest newspaper.
He wrote the following, poll after
poll shows overwhelming support for
this legislation, yet the political
problem we face is that in a 50-50
Senate, we need every Democratic
senator to vote yes.
We now have only 48.
Two Democratic senators were made
in opposition,
including Senator Joe Manchin.
Now, that triggered Joe Manchin,
who then released his own statement
in response on Twitter,
arguing this isn't the first time
an out-of-stater has tried to tell
West Virginians what is best for
them despite having no relationship
to our state.
Senator Sanders his answer is
to throw more money on
an already overheated economy.
Well, 52 other senators have grave
concerns about this approach.
The bill would be paid for
by increasing taxes as we all know.
To be clear, again, Congress should
proceed with caution on any
additional spending and
I will not vote for a reckless
expansion of government programs.
No op ed from a self declared
independence socialist is going to
change that.
Real quick Cenk,
before I go to you,
I just want to note that Bernie,
as he usually is, is correct.
Let's take a look at how
West Virginians feel about
the budget reconciliation bill.
With a nonpartisan,
nonprofit WorkMoney surveyed more
than 50,000 of its 2 million
members nationwide.
It found that 81% of respondents
said they supported this plan.
That includes 90% of liberals
who took the survey, 81% of
moderates and 66% of conservatives.
Now, let's take a look
at West Virginia this should
be relevant to Senator Manchin.
80% of respondents in West Virginia
believe Manchin should vote to pass
the bill.
That includes 77% of Conservatives
who responded to the survey.
>> Yeah, so a lot of this is about
optics, and then I'll tell you what
the reality is.
So there on the optics front,
Bernie Sanders put the op-ed in
the West Virginia newspaper,
to obviously rattle Machin's cage,
and it did rattle it to some
extent why, you might wonder.
What's the big deal about a local
newspaper that no one reads?
Well, in the old days, everybody
used to read the local papers.
And local media is
worth way more than national media,
especially in the old days.
And remember, all of our
politicians are in their 70s or
older, so they still believe
in the old adage from Tip O'Neill,
all politics is local.
So when an old school politician
like Joe Manchin as he's an op-ed
from a different Senator,
especially from his own party in
his local paper,
he thinks that's a shot across
the bow in a massive way, right?
So they're like, whoa,
wait a minute now we're getting
into real open warfare here.
Now, the reality is, that's
not really how media works anymore.
More people watch cable news,
more people go on Facebook
than they read any local newspaper
by an order of magnitude, right?
But the old senators have not
caught on to that at all.
So now the second portion,
this is also optics so
they have the meeting.
apparently they didn't make
very much progress at all.
And afterwards Manchin demands
a photo op,
as you saw there in the video.
Now, why is he doing that?
He just said he's an out of stater,
independent socialist and etc,
and if we're an open warfare.
No, as Anna pointed out,
says Bernie did so
well in the primary in 2016 Manchin
knows that is a big chunk of his
own voters, the Democratic voters,
and he's got to appease them.
So being a classic politician,
he goes in both directions,
brags about 52 senators,
50 of whom are Republicans
that are on his side, or 48
of them are Republicans at least.
I'm sorry it keeps saying that
wrong, 50 are on his side that
are Republicans.
And then at the same time, he was
covering his bases with Bernie.
So he's got basically his arms
around Mitch McConnell and Bernie
Sanders, but all of that is optics.
There's only one thing he cares
about, and a lot of the articles
talking about how the White House
and Jennifer Granholm and
the Energy Department Are making
big pitch about how much this
bill would actually help the people
of West Virginia.
But guys, the truth is already in a
80% of the people of West Virginia
want the bill, they think it's
going to help them, you can't get
that much better than 80%.
That's not going to move Manchin
one inch, Bernie's not going to
move them, none of these things
are going to move them.
The only thing he cares about is
money, money, money, money, period.
And in this case, we're really kind
of screwed because he's taking out
the biggest portion of the fighting
back against climate change for
the bill.
He saying, that's my red line,
I don't want you to fight climate
change at all.
I don't want you to go towards
renewable energies.
And it's going to be
super hard to move,
not only because of his donors
are in that industry, obviously,
as we've shown you in the past.
But his own company that he
founded, his son runs that he gets
money from half a million dollars
every year is in coal.
So moving away from coal is
devastating.
I mean, he's already incredibly
wealthy, but he would perceive it
as devastating to his personal
income and his personal wealth.
So how are you getting to move
a senator that deeply corrupt,
that jury's still out.
>> I think that there's still
a possibility to move him as we've
talked about before,
because if you look at the entirety
of Joe Manchin's political career
even as he's huffing and
puffing, even as he's going out of
his way to differentiate himself
from the Democratic Party.
When he's pressured enough
and persistently,
he does eventually cave, right?
The real wildcard here,
the person that I'm most concerned
about in the Senate is Sinema.
Because you have the theory
that she doesn't know
what she's doing at all.
My theory is she seems to get some
sort of pleasure or a rise out of
upsetting her own constituents.
She seems to like the negative
attention considering the fact that
she's going against the will of her
own constituents and supporters.
But with that said, I mean going
back to what you said earlier Cenk,
about the op-ed that was written by
Bernie and how this is against
the rules like the decorum and
what senators are used to.
I mean, all I could really think
about is the good old days of
politics, where you have
someone like LBJ, okay?
As the head of the senate, right?
Senate Majority Leader.
I mean, he stopped at nothing.
He knew when to use carrots,
there's no question about that.
But he was pretty vicious and
he also knew how to wield power.
He knew how to coerce and
intimidate.
And I questioned whether
any of that takes
place in Congress anymore.
>> That's funny you say that
because I just asked on social
media earlier in the day.
If Manchin or Sinema prevent us
from passing any of these bills,
are there going to be any
consequence?
>> There absolutely should be.
>> Yeah,
I mean if you kill the President's
agenda, there should be nuclear
consequences politically.
Does Joe Biden even have
a single stick in his arsenal,
let alone nukes?
I mean, I'd be surprised if they
got a slap on the hand.
So- >> Joe Biden is giving
them a lot of what they want.
So for instance, Biden who at first
was standing firm on the $3.5
trillion price tag, which again,
would be paid for through common
sense tax increases on the rich.
Now, he's saying okay, maybe we go
down to $2 trillion, right?
Remember Manchin said
his red line was 1.5 trillion.
I wouldn't be surprised if Biden
eventually falls in that number,
close it at that number.
>> No, they're going to go around
two, for sure.
>> Okay, whatever, but
what has Biden also just said?
He's considering
doing away with a massive renewable
energy provision in the bill.
>> So that's my point guys.
So- >> Why?
>> You can get to whatever number
they Manchin and
Biden are comfortable with, none of
us will be comfortable with it.
It'll probably be around two, but
the question is, what's in the two?
And so Manchin is specifically
saying that I don't
want you to fight climate change.
The provisions that are about
climate change, I want you to take
them out, period.
I'm in coal, I don't care
about your stupid planet.
I still got money to make,
my kids got money to make.
And so we're going to install red
line.
Now, that's a giant problem.
And honestly on that one,
I don't know how they're going to
move them off of it,
he has to move off of it.
Otherwise, they're not
going to get any better.
But guys, there's more, but there's
also good news in a sense, because
other senators, not just Bernie,
like all of a sudden the other 47
Democratic senators showed up,
what we had was Manchin, Sinema and
Bernie, right?
On the two different sides.
The other 47 usually don't do
anything anyway, right?
But now all of a sudden,
Tina Smith, Sheldon Whitehouse,
Merkley are all rising up,
Ed Markey, rising up and going, no,
if you take out the things that
fight against climate change our
voters are demanding it.
Absolutely, positively and
especially Ed Markley,
who won based on that platform
Massachusetts, and then we're
going to vote no, which is I've
never seen a Corporate Democrat.
Some of them are, some of them
are a little bit more progressive,
but Corporate Democrats say no,
I'm voting no, if you don't give us
what our constituents want.
Normally, they don't care at all
what their constituents want.
But Ed Markley saw in his election,
he would not have gotten elected if
it was not for
the Progressive vote period,
there's no question about that.
Now, we've affected their power.
So this is much more complicated
than the old days, where Manchin
would have steamrolled everybody,
and Biden would have been as
willing partner in that.
Now, it's just a little bit more,
give and take here.
Last thing for me, that's super
important in West Virginia, all
this hubbub is not about the jobs,
everything you hear from
Corporate Democrats and corporate
media, almost everything is a lie.
Only 3% of the jobs in
West Virginia are coal jobs, 3%.
Now, this about Manchin's profits
and donors, period.