Manchin Buries His Head in His Hands During Schumer Speech on Debt Ceiling, Says Remarks Were Not ‘Appropriate’

Senator Joe Manchin had a very noticeable reaction to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s debt ceiling speech Thursday night.

11 Republicans joined Democrats to advance a deal on the debt ceiling that ultimately passed Thursday night. After the procedural vote, Schumer celebrated its passage and said, “Republicans played a dangerous and risky partisan game, and I am glad that their brinksmanship did not work.”

“Republicans must recognize in the future that they should approach fixing the debt limit in a bipartisan way,” he continued.

“We hope Republicans will join in enacting a long-term solution to the debt limit in December. We’re ready to work with them,” Schumer said.

He continued on to hit Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans for “insist[ing] they wanted a solution to the debt ceiling, but said Democrats must raise it alone by going through a drawn-out, convoluted, and risky reconciliation process.”

As he said that, the C-SPAN camera picked up Manchin burying his face in his hands right behind Schumer.

About a minute later, as Schumer continued slamming McConnell, Manchin got up and walked away.

After Schumer spoke, the West Virginia Democrat told reporters the speech was not “appropriate.”

“We have to de-weaponize,” he said. “You can’t be playing politics… Both sides have been very guilty of this.”

Manchin tells us he didn’t like Schumer’s speech after the vote to break a filibuster on the debt ceiling. "I didn't think it was appropriate at this time," he said, arguing that "we need to de-weaponize" and stop "playing politics … That was not a way to take (frustration) out” pic.twitter.com/TsGDsMNAqK

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 8, 2021

“Civility is gone,” Manchin added.

You can watch above, via C-SPAN 2.