one of the key votes in the senate joins
us right now
democratic senator from west virginia
joe manchin senator welcome back to
special reports
thanks for having me brett appreciate it
senator i want to make clear
what happened today you voted to move
the procedure forward
on the budget resolution you didn't vote
for the package itself the 1.9 trillion
you moved it forward you have problems
with the 1.9 trillion as it's written
basically we know we have a challenge on
our hand we have a pandemic and we're
not sure what direction this pandemic's
going especially if the variants come
into it
so the need for a pandemic relief is
needed
uh people can decide on what the size of
that needs to be the president has said
1.9
and then my republican colleagues and
friends have taken a different approach
but at least they started this and i
thought it was a great meeting
last night that the president the first
entertainment of any
legislators was ten of my friends and
republican colleagues who went and spent
two hours with the president
that showed a tremendous gesture of
goodwill now we just got to find a
bipartisan way through
i voted to start big
difference here between 1.9 and 600
obviously just on top line
but as you go into the specifics the
1400
stimulus checks but the big one are you
for raising the minimum wage to 15
an hour brett i don't think that's going
to make it in because it doesn't fit
within
i know it's inside ball game but inside
the bird rule
only thing we can do during during this
uh during this
reconciliation is anything that comes
within the financial realms of what
we're dealing with
it's called a budget reconciliation has
to be within the budget lines
that does not come within that at all
and it really needs to be debated it
doesn't work and
different states are different some
states already have 15
i think anybody that goes to work in the
morning and works 40 hours a week
and works 50 weeks a year that's 2 000
hours should be above a family of three
above the poverty guidelines and that's
not 15
yeah let me put up the biden coronavirus
relief plan and that's 1400
stimulus checks the 15 an hour which
you're saying is not going to fall into
uh the rules as the ring
does and also 350 billion in state and
local relief you're for that
well we have to look at that i think
that's way high from everything i've
seen that's extremely high
but with that we want to make sure that
the states that truly have been hit the
hardest
have revenue shortages because of the
type of economy they had
have some relief we're very sympathetic
towards that
and you know we worked together in uh
the 900 billion 908
team that we put together with democrats
and republicans and came up with a good
compromise
but you had to meet metrics's in order
to do it you had to show need
you had to show basically the
coronavirus how much it attacked your
state
and basically how your economy lost in
the population so they're going to have
to prove that they need it
but i don't think it'll be anywhere near
that
so if they say we're pushing forward
with reconciliation which means not 60
51 votes let's say they figure out a way
to write it where it all fits under the
rules
you're questioning that but let's say
they do and they come to you and say joe
we need that vote and it's 1.9 trillion
are you voting for it what brett what i
have told everybody i made it very clear
from the president of the united states
to all of my colleagues
we're going to make this work in a
bipartisan way my friends on the other
side are going to have input and we're
going to do something that we agree on
i'm not going to do it just down the
lines of just saying party line vote it
has to make sense
and if it's out of the realm that makes
sense and what we've worked on together
we've built too much trust up among each
other to allow this to fall apart
so they can count on me to make sure
that we do everything to make this
bipartisan
so that sounds like a no if they try to
blow it down
the line we're not going to blow it down
the line they can't do it down the line
basically we've got to be able to those
who are
defending their numbers whatever they
may be in whatever category
they have to show where it comes from
the sources and where the need is
we have to look at basically how much
we've already spent in those arenas
there's a lot of money
that's gone out the door and we all know
that i didn't
i wish we would have been able to sit
down and work through a bipartisan way
they all knew that they knew where i
stood but i wasn't going to stand
and not allow us to go down a pathway
and they're going back in history
brett in 2009 they said i wasn't here
they tried to work on the affordable
care act they worked for eight or nine
months negotiating
and then it all fell apart we really
don't have that amount of time
if we it would fall apart i don't think
it would but that's
that's their interpretation of it so i
said fine we'll start this process
but i want you to know i will vote in a
bipartisan way
senate now senate minority leader mitch
mcconnell said the reason he was going
forward with the power sharing deal is
because you and arizona senator kirsten
cinema essentially pledged publicly
that you would not uh break up the
filibuster the 60 vote threshold for
legislation
two questions here one under what
conditions would you vote to end the
filibuster
i don't think there is any you
understand i come from the state
that had a senator who served this this
country unbelievable
but the bottom line was he was a
defender of the senate he used to tell
me brady said hey joe
he says when i was governor he says let
me tell you about the senate it's a
special place
there's nothing like it in the world he
says why do you think rhode island has
two senators in california
the smallest and the largest why do you
think that don't you think our founding
fathers were thinking of
basically how the big person couldn't
press to the smaller person why do you
think we have the filibuster
so the minority has input i was this was
ingrained into me
and he said joe they even named a rule
after me called the bird rule
you know what that's there for why i put
that in he said so they couldn't go
around the back door and do away with it
so you're talking about a person that's
going to defend the legacy of robert c
byrd
and so cinema and and yourself you're
both public but are there other
democrats you know of that would i sure
do
vote to bust up the filibuster i think
there is i really do
i think though and just it's you know
they'll have to speak for themselves but
i have i've had good conversations a lot
of my friends and i think there's people
that feel exactly like i do
this didn't work well in 2013 when harry
reid did it and then my
mitch mcconnell did it in 2017 it hasn't
worked well for
anybody okay we should work together
that's the purpose of the senate well
let me ask you this
yeah the white house politically tried
to put a little pressure on you it seems
you know having vice president harris go
to this local station in west virginia
you you said you didn't know about it
have you talked to them since that
did they make a mistake by doing that
absolutely they made a mistake and it
shouldn't have been done but a mistake
was made and we're going to make
mistakes this road says
to air is human we're human beings but
with that being said i've spoken
to the president about that and i've
spoken to his some of his top officials
and
i understand that the mistake was made
should not have been done
you know today at the white house jen
saki pointed to west virginia governor
jim justice and said
that he's for a big package as far as
covet relief what they don't talk about
though is the other part
of that interview from governor justice
and here's a little piece of that about
climate change
if you want civilization to advance
today we need clean energy
and i'm all for it but we just have to
have a strategy
rather than a knee jerk and that's what
we have going on right now and it's uh
it's going to backfire it's really going
to hurt us
do you agree with governor justice or
what happened with the climate change
executive orders in the biden
administration well the bottom line i
disagreed
i respectfully disagree with the
president and executive order on going
away the keystone pipeline
i've seen the train blow up in west
virginia carrying that crude i've seen
tanker cars explode going through towns
it's much safer in that pipeline than it
is coming across the road or the rail
if they think they're going to stop that
product that's a heavy crude we need
in our refineries the bottom line is in
that
the i'm an all in energy person brett
and we have to have energy basically
and not depend on foreign energy so we
have to have the heavy crude i rather
for come from canada and i would from
venezuela
so all of this being said we're going to
find a pathway forward
but bottom line is we can do it cleaner
you cannot
eliminate your way to a cleaner global
environment you can innovate your way
through technology and that's what we
intend to do and in west virginia we'll
build the new
technology that the rest of the world
can clean up the environment
this is it should be an opportunity
there's transitions going on
i have 10 seconds here senator are you
the most powerful person in washington
let me tell you something i've seen
people who thought they had power
and abused it i've seen the people that
desired power and abused it
and i've seen people that had an
opportunity to be in a situation where
we can make a difference and i hope i'm
that person to make a difference
to bring our country together you're
always welcome
you're always welcome back here on
special report we appreciate the time
thanks brett nice to be with you