Joe Manchin told us in advance of
the vote to establish a commission
to look into what happened on
January 6, that the filibuster does
not need to be gotten rid of it
doesn't need to even be reformed.
We can get something like that
commission, thanks to the fact that
there are definitely ten good
republicans.
And I greeted that with a little
bit of suspicion since I'm not 100%
sure there's ten good democrats but
he thought for sure there are well,
they filibustered it.
He's assumed
they would not they did.
They've said Mitch McConnell said
that he's 100% focused on stopping
Joe Biden stopping literally
everything.
That's what they're doing.
Now in the wake of that,
has he changed his view?
Let's take a look at this.
>> Do you have Mitch McConnell
wants to locative, last week he
blocked a commission bill and
you he's saying that he will wants
to work with him.
>> I'm not saying that was that
either and I was very disappointed.
I think it was wrong what he did,
and I've said that he knows how I
feel about that.
It was totally everything
they asked for.
For it was totally bipartisan.
I think Nancy Pelosi was very
gracious in what she had offered,
basically making it totally
bipartisan.
Everything was done in the most
bipartisan way.
And for him- >> They blocked it
because of the filibuster.
>> Well, for
one person blocked it on that, but
the bottom line is, we have seven
people,60 vote is seven wood.
We need three more,
let's give it another shot.
>> And so you can say you'll
never produce a 60 vote threshold?
>> We're going to make
the place work.
We're going to make the- >> You're
not taking that off the table then?
>> We're making it work,
we'll make the place work.
>> You're not taking, reducing the
60 vote threshold off the table?
>> We're going to make the place
work is I don't know what else I
can tell you.
And you can't make it work
unless the minority has input.
You can't disregard a person that's
not in the majority.
The Senate was never
designed that way.
>> Okay, so
I want to return to that final
point that he made in a second.
But at first let's talk about the
fact that he describe the process
that they set up the commission
that they wanted to approve as in
every way bipartisan, and
the reporter Monitoraggio points
out and then they filibustered it.
And he didn't even blink before
continuing his defense of it like
he did what he says is necessary to
create bipartisanship.
They didn't get it.
It was filibustered.
He says, I'm not even
done with that.
I'm not even ready to talk about
the way that we're going to get
screwed over on the next bill.
I think we should put more time
into trying to make this commission
surely they won't filibuster
it again.
What are your thoughts?
>> Boy, I'm that old saying
that Washington is Hollywood for
ugly people?
You know that one?
I would add to Hollywood for
ugly people who also can't act,
I don't believe don't mention for
a second.
That is the least believable
performance I've ever seen.
He doesn't believe that the senate
will work one because it doesn't
really matter to him like he is so
isolated and insulated from
the effects of policies that he
fails to pass or the his governing
body fails to enact.
Nothing that he does or doesn't do
changes the fact that Joe Manchin
is a US Senator with cushy,
US senator level health care and
a cushy US Senator level salary.
He's not somebody that's ever going
to have to suffer as a result
of his own decision.
And so it's like he doesn't really
care if the senate works, nor
does he really have any
motivation to make it work.
Yeah, people are mad at him.
But it seems like he's
somebody who's sort of
impervious to public scorn,
because attention is attention,
I guess in the world of DSD.
And yeah, I found myself going like
this at the end of that clip.
Because it is so frustrating to
watch somebody who is so expecting
me to believe something that is so
demonstrably not possible.
It's frustrating but he's also
the one with all the power.
I'm going to need to go ahead and
take some deep breaths outside
after the [LAUGH] segment.
I've had enough of him.
>> I absolutely like some of those
deep breaths that you need
to take same that I need to
take because we all recognize this.
We all recognize a gas lighter when
we see one.
We recognize someone who's
calculating every sentence.
Joe Manchin in that you can look,
his act when he's not even
a good poker player Joe Manchin,
like you look down you, when you
lie, you look down and you start
rubbing your fingers together.
So we could just kind of like
really break that video down piece
by piece and look at every place
where he's alive.
But here's what you
don't give a gas lighter.
You don't give a gas lighter chance
to just go on a monologue, right?
You don't give them and
that's what the reporter did and
that clipping gave him a chance and
as soon as Joe Manchin
got a chance to get a monologue in,
he started talking about how he
wanted to protect the Senate.
But the way you protect the Senate
is absolutely by understanding you
have bad faith actors in there by
the Republican Party.
And that means the best way to
protect the Senate is to get rid
of the filibuster so that you could
whip the republicans into shape.
But because Joe Manchin has
ulterior motives,
he's going to Gaslight us and
everybody recognizes a gas lighter
because we've all been lied to
in relationships before Joe.
Come on. >> Yeah.
>> We know what's up.
>> Yeah.
And we're all going to take
deep breaths.
I think one of the things about
watching a video like that, and
honestly, so we play that video for
you, and we just implied
to you that it's new.
But are you sure that that's not
from three months ago?
Are you sure that he's not just
saying the same thing, and we
could pick whichever one we want.
because new information changing
circumstances don't change what
he's saying.
So, watch out because you might
be tricked in the future.
A part of the helplessness I think,
is that in a situation like this,
there are two things that we should
be able to do.
That should be solutions to
the problem we're faced which is
a powerful man who's standing
between us and progress is wrong.
So one thing we should be able to
do, is reason with him.
For instance, that might come in
the form of talking as a reporter
did with curses cinema yesterday
about the racist nature of
the filibuster.
How it has generally been used to
stop, civil rights legislation
that's what it was designed to do.
We might explain that even when
it's not doing that it's mainly
used to protect the status quo from
change that might
hurt them economically.
There are good people in government
trying to get through to people
like him in this way.
For instance,
Jamal Bowman representative said,
when Donald Trump cut the corporate
tax rate from 35% to 21%,
it wasn't by partisan, not a single
democrat voted in favor.
There's no reason that we need
to be bipartisan in repealing that
tax cut, which is a great point.
Assuming that Joe Manchin is being
honest and can be reasoned with,
but he can't.
So at that point, we can't change
his mind because he's not actually
giving us a reflection of his mind
when he speaks.
But what about this?
He's a politician.
He's ambitious.
He's got to want something, right?
Certainly he wants to remain
in the majority and this is a path
to lose that majority and
not in a long time.
But what does he want to be in
the majority for?
What does Joe mansion want out of
his position?
Does anyone know?
Could his aid?
Answer that question.
Is there a massive piece of
legislation?
The Cancer Moonshot that he's just
been working on his whole life and
finally, we get all the pieces on
the table in position to strike.
Now what he doesn't want anything.
He's going to be fine as Erin
pointed out, he's going to be rich
and happy regardless of whether
he's the majority of the minority
he can stay as long as he wants.
It's seemingly impossible
to root them out via primary so
we can't reason with him.
We can't appeal to his arrogant
self interest.
So I'll ask you to what are we
supposed to do?
>> I don't know.
And the thing that's really
frustrating for me is that some of
the things that are in
the infrastructure bill are things
that we needed 30 years ago.
Like guaranteed parental leave
provisions, things to do with
reducing the cost of child care.
Things that families need in order
to enable parents to work that have
not existed in the US forever and
that are a national embarrassment.
Those things I fear are going to be
pushed aside in the name of
Joe Manchin's nothing agenda.
And he is frustrating, but
the thing that is most frustrating
to me is the loss on the other
side of his inscrutable in action.
And I find myself feeling like on
the brink of despair but I also
feel like people like Joe Manchin
kind of thrive when people get so
frustrated they stopped
paying attention to him.
And so I'm just kind of preparing
myself for a really annoying summer
politically.
>> Yeah.
>> I think Joe Manchin is almost
like the height.
He is like the personification of
a Judas and
a Benedict Arnold at their height,
because he's there to betray us.
That's just my take don't accredit
that to TYT at all, because you
have to ask yourself this question,
what are the results that you're
getting?
I don't care if you're
talking about bipartisanship.
Are they coming to you or
are we going to them because
Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema
constantly takes us to them.
Kirsten Sinema with our curtsy made
sure that the people
didn't get 15 an hour.
She's not on our side.
Joe Manchin standing in the way of
us passing the getting rid of
the filibuster so that we can get
the voting rights to HR one pass so
that we could protect democracy.
He's taking us to them at our
expense.
So the honest truth is that they're
not there for bipartisanship,
they're there to serve
the Republican Party.
>> Yeah.
And so
just briefly his last point there
was, we can't have a body where
the minority doesn't have input.
And I'm sure he must have been
really frustrated for
all those years.
The Republicans were in
charge where they had no input but
he was pretty quiet about it then.
The way it works right now and
I talked about this,
I think the damage for yesterday,
is that the Democrats are reaching
out to the Republicans.
So in so far as they could
have input on the legislation
that's being given, I mean,
a great example of that is
the Capitol Commission.
It was split totally evenly so much
so that weren't to be established,
it's likely it wouldn't be able to
accomplish anything.
And that did not actually matter to
the Republicans.
Right now,
they don't need to use input,
they have a veto on everything that
the democrats want to do.
Why would they use their input when
they could just shut down
the entire thing?
He's given them something so much
better than a seat in the room.
They can set
fire to the entire building.
And yet he presents to us this idea
that all we need is to give them
a little bit more of a chance and
like we've said, we're not
going to get through to him.
We don't we're not going to change
his mind since that's not his mind.
That's not what he actually thinks.
But I don't know.
Maybe getting through to our
viewers, they talk to people,
maybe they'll talk to some
people in West Virginia and
someday that trickles up to him
being taking out other than that.
I don't know.
This is one of the stories that
just leaves me with a deep feeling
of powerlessness and dread.