Manchin ‘Intentionally Sabotaging’ Biden’s Agenda, Rails Bernie Sanders After Reconciliation Push Falls Apart

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) accused Senator Joe Manchin (R-SC) of “sabotaging” President Joe Biden’s agenda by scramming the Democrats’ spending agendas on climate action and energy policy.

Sanders gave a broad interview to ABC News’ Martha Raddatz on Sunday, and part of the conversation revolved around Manchin’s announcement against the budget reconciliation legislation Democrats have been pursuing. Manchin announced he wouldn’t support the bill and called for a review of July inflation figures before pursuing further action on party-line spending, but Sanders had no patience for this as Raddatz brought up how Manchin “pulled the plug” on it.

“He has sabotaged the president’s agenda,” Sanders said with visible frustration.

If you check the record, 6 months ago, I made it clear that you have people like Manchin — [Kyrsten] Sinema to a lesser degree — who are intentionally sabotaging the president’s agenda, what the American people want, what a majority of us in the Democratic caucus want. Nothing new about this. And the problem was that we continued to talk to Manchin like he was serious. He was not. This is a guy who’s a major recipient of fossil fuel money, a guy who has received campaign contributions from 25 Republican billionaires…

Raddatz interjected to bring up Manchin’s inflation concerns, which Sanders responded to with a drawling exclamation of “really!” Sanders went on to dismiss Manchin’s remarks as “nonsense,” accused the senator of representing the wealthy over the interests of working-class families, and bashed Manchin for standing in the way of climate change action.

Watch above, via ABC