Biden tries to Salvage Domestic Policy Bill After Rift With Manchin
WASHINGTON — President Biden and his top aides tried on Monday to salvage hopes of passing their domestic agenda, acknowledging that their only path forward is to repair a broken relationship with Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia after a personal and policy breach over the weekend that left the legislation all but dead in the Senate.
Even as Mr. Manchin, a centrist Democrat, publicly expanded on his frustration with the administration and said White House officials had driven him to his “wit’s end,” administration officials tried to lower the temperature. They hope that despite a weekend of angry recriminations, they can eventually lure Mr. Manchin — who effectively holds the legislation’s fate in his hands — back to the negotiating table.
Mr. Biden spoke with Mr. Manchin late Sunday, just hours after the White House issued a scathing rebuke to the senator’s abrupt and public withdrawal from negotiations over Mr. Biden’s sprawling, $2.2 trillion climate, social spending and tax bill. A person familiar with the call described it as pleasant.
At the White House, Jen Psaki, the press secretary, repeatedly downplayed the breakdown in negotiations between Mr. Biden and Mr. Manchin, whose support is critical to passage of the president’s legislation in the Senate, which requires the support of all 50 Democrats amid united Republican opposition. She described the two men as “longtime friends” five times.
https://nyti.ms/3FgrN7F
