McConnell: Democrats Sound Like 'They Don't Really Want' Manchin in Their Party, But We'd Take Him

In an exclusive interview, I asked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell about his reaction to Sen. Joe Manchin's decision to break with his party and formally oppose the Biden administration's multi-trillion-dollar "Build Back Better" spending spree. McConnell celebrated the West Virginian's surprise "Fox News Sunday" announcement and expressed astonishment at the White House's scorched-earth reaction, which he correctly characterized as tantamount to calling Manchin a liar. Here is the full interview, with a few quotes and points of interest highlighted below:

BENSON: Are you surprised at all by the White House reaction attacking Manchin pretty personally on his integrity, saying that he sort of went back on his word and perhaps this was a betrayal? In your experience is that a successful persuasion tactic with someone like Manchin?
MCCONNELL: I tell you in the time I've been Republican Leader I never get angry about losing a vote because, you know, the most important vote is always the next vote. So I was shocked at the vitriol and basically seemed to me that they were calling Senator Manchin a liar. I think that was not smart. This is a 50-50 Senate. It’s going to be 50-50 for another year. And believe me, that’s not – that’s not the way I would have handled a disappointing vote like this...
BENSON: ...I saw a story just the other day, Senator McConnell, about you and Manchin getting chummier in recent days and Democrats sort of fretting about that. Is that true? Have you grown closer with Senator Manchin? And do you think there’s a case to be made to him, particularly given what you just called the vitriol from The White House that maybe, given the way his constituents voted in 2016 and 2020, maybe the more natural home for Senator Joe Manchin is in the Republican Conference?
MCCONNELL: Well, it won’t surprise you to know, Guy, I've made that argument for quite some time to [Joe]. We come from the same part of the country, you know, a lot of similarities between West Virginia and Virginia, including our constituencies, which are pretty red these days. I don’t know if Joe will ever become a Republican but I can tell you this for sure, the moderates are gone. There are two left in the Senate -- two moderates out of 50. There were more moderate Democrats when Barack Obama was president then there are today. And so it’s a completely uncomfortable fit for Joe. I think he’s probably, for example, the only pro-life Democrat of the 50. He doesn’t fit well over there but that’s a decision, ultimately, he has to make. We’d certainly welcome him to join us if he was so inclined.
BENSON: ...Does that conversation change after this vote and the reaction to it, in your view?
MCCONNELL: Well, Manchin -- it looks like they don’t really want him. I mean, I can’t imagine any other explanation for the -- for that statement yesterday, which was, as I said earlier, summing it up, they basically called Joe Manchin a liar.

NEW: Source familiar confirms Politico reporting on what caused Manchin to halt BBB talks. WH gave Manchin heads up Thursday that statement would come out and mention him by name - he asked that it be left our or not mentioned alone because of harassment - but WH did it anyway.
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) December 20, 2021

White House Press Secretary doubled down on the churlish and aggressive statement in a media briefing Monday, though the president and Manchin spoke by phone – ending with "a sense" that there will be some renewed effort to reach some sort of agreement next year. We'll see. Political observers are mystified by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's supposed plan to insist upon a potentially painful and embarrassing BBB vote in the coming weeks:

“Vulnerable Democratic senators, already facing the prospect of a punishing midterm environment, will now be forced to take a position on the polarizing legislation.”https://t.co/ixurv0EWhW
— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) December 20, 2021

The Senate Democratic strategy for 2022 is to hold votes that show Democratic disunity and Republican unity? https://t.co/7biAIraZdN
— Bill Scher (@billscher) December 20, 2021

Forcing a vote on a doomed piece of legislation when the majority party doesn’t have the votes is something that every minority party YEARNS to do

And Schumer just wants to give us a free W. My man https://t.co/iKbQki6KDq
— Logan Dobson (@LoganDobson) December 20, 2021

As for McConnell's optimism heading into the midterm cycle (largely based on a national environment recently reflected in Virginia and New Jersey), I'll leave you with this:

Biden at (29/66) approval among independents in this new poll, in which he's 14 points underwater overall: https://t.co/teC8Mr6pnJ
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) December 20, 2021