State of the Union: Interview With Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV)

Interview

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Dana, thanks for having me.

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Well, it's a very sad -- it's a very sad time for America to go through what we're going through now.

And people being divided and they think that justice might be biased, we have to make sure that we wait and see what comes out next week. And I hope they do their job. I have said this. No one's above the law, Dana, but no one should be targeted by the law, especially through the political process.

So we will just wait and see next week. I hope they are very thorough in the job they do. And, basically, people should have faith in this judicial system of ours.

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What is that?

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No, I'm saying you have to remove all doubt. You have to remove all doubt. You have to make sure -- cross every T, dot every I, as they say.

But you know that no person, the president, myself, or anybody else in Congress or no matter what your status is, in the United States of America, you're not above the law. And on the other hand, no person should be targeted by the law either.

So let's make sure that's cleared up, and let's see where it goes.

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Well, Dana, first of all, the purpose of the bill was energy security, producing more fossil fuels cleaner than anywhere in the world, so we wouldn't be short, and also getting inflation under control, so you have to put more product in the market, and then being able to invest in the new technology for the future, for less-carbon- producing energy.

All that can be done. But you can't do that if you basically start manipulating how you're going to implement the piece of legislation. And that's what I have said. As far as the reliance that we have on China that builds the battery, has 80 percent market control and shares, it's ridiculous for us to move rapidly into a transportation mode that we do not have the ability to supply ourself or with reliable supply chains.

I'm old enough to remember waiting in line in 1974 to buy gas to go to work. I don't want to wait in line to get a battery from China. That's all.

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And the bill was designed to basically develop the technology and manufacture in America.

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I'm looking at every option I possibly have to make sure that that bill is fulfilled and basically implemented the way it was intended to.

The president and I spoke. We knew exactly -- I was very clear on what we're doing, in writing the legislation and working through it, that it was for energy security. It was basically for bringing down high costs, as far as in medical, as far as pharmaceutical drugs, and also paying down debt.

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The bill is a beautiful piece of legislation, balanced. Just do the job. Do the law.

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Follow the law, Mr. President. Make your administration do that.

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Yes.

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It's just -- it's not going to end up as a default. We are going to pay our bills and raise the debt ceiling.

But can't we acknowledge that, basically, that we can get our finances under control? Are we believing that everything's perfect, we're doing everything -- there's no waste, there's no abuse, there's no fraud, there's no nothing?

And, basically, we have had 21 years of spending more money than we brought in, and we don't think that we should sit down and talk about this and find a better path forward? There's not an American...

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Well, first of all -- first of all -- first of all, the president -- first of all, the has a budget that's supposed to be out in February. It was not.

Next of all, the Congress is supposed to have -- the Senate is supposed to have a budget by April Fool's Day, April yesterday, April 1. That didn't happen. And by the 15th, the House and the Senate is supposed to have reconciliation of a bill, and by September 30, passing.

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Just doing that saves billions and billions of dollars.

We can't even do that. We're not even holding ourselves accountable for that.

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And, next of all, if you just cap the spending, if you just cap the spending, you will save trillions of dollars. You don't have to talk about cutting things and harming people at all.

The bottom line is, we have increased the debt by $8 trillion just with COVID, just during the COVID period. Can't we go back to some normal times and see if there's savings? I don't know why we can't talk about that. I think, if you put the president and Kevin McCarthy in a room, in a rational, reasonable conversation, we can have a pathway forward, and not hold anything hostage, especially the debt ceiling.

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Dana, the only thing I have said, only in America does the next election start the day after the last election.

Now, I'm going to basically wait until the end of this year and just do my job. There's so much to be done. Inflation is rampant right now. People are having a hard time. They're paying more for our groceries. They're paying more at the pump. They're paying more for heat and -- heat their home.

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I will wait for my end of the year to see where...

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I will just wait. I'm not in a hurry.

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Dana, first of all, I'm worn out. The people are tired, sick and tired, of the fighting and division that we have and dividing the country.

Abraham Lincoln said -- a divided -- divided, we cannot stand. We cannot, basically, have a divided country, and we cannot withstand that. We have to come together. We're the United States.

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We have a movement. There's a movement. There's a movement going on that people want to bring the extremes back to the sensible and reasonable, responsible middle.

If I can be part of trying to get a dialogue...

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I'm trying to get a dialogue to where people are saying, come on, this is ridiculous. Don't force people to go to the extremes. No one runs their life this way.

Let's come back to the middle. It's the United States of America. It's about our country. Everyone's worried about their own political future. I'm worried about the country.

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Thanks, Dana. It's good to be with you.

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