 I've got to be honest with you, I've been around for a long time in state politics and federal politics. I've never seen stranger bedfellas than Bernie Sanders and the extreme liberal left siding up with the Republican leadership in the caucus. I've never seen this happen. So teaming up with Republicans to block portions of the Democratic Party's agenda is now apparently bad according to Joe Manchin of all people who's been doing just that for nearly two years now. Interesting. Now he later goes on in that same video to accuse Bernie Sanders of doing revenge politics, which we'll talk about and I'll play more of the press conference for you. But the reason why he's so angry at Bernie Sanders and Republicans in this instance is because they're not playing ball when it comes to his dirty deal. Now what is the dirty deal? Well the dirty deal is basically a provision within an upcoming must pass budget bill that accelerates permits for fossil fuel projects, it scales back environmental reviews which would accelerate the development of fossil fuel projects like the mountain valley pipeline that Manchin and his donors have been aggressively pushing. Now I'll talk about why this is being included in must pass legislation here in a moment. But Bernie Sanders is opposed to this because obviously this is bad for the environment. Republicans, they are too opposed to this at least at this point in time, but not because they care about the environment. They're opposed to this specifically because it doesn't go far enough. It's not a good enough giveaway to the fossil fuel industry. So you could say technically Bernie Sanders and Republicans are politically aligned when it comes to this vote, but they're aligned for very, very different reasons to be clear. Now all of Democratic Party leadership Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, they all are hellbent on putting this provision that Joe Biden or Joe Manchin rather desperately wants into the upcoming must pass bill because this was kind of the stipulation that was used to get Manchin to support the Inflation Reduction Act. As Jake Johnson of Common Dreams explains, as part of a deal to secure Manchin's support for the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act, Democratic leaders agreed to hold a vote on permitting reforms that the senator and his industry allies have long demanded. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California are expected to attach a permitting reform bill to a government funding measure that must pass by the end of the month to avoid a shutdown. The White House said Monday that President Joe Biden is committed to advancing permitting reforms. So in short, this is the Democratic Party scratching each other's back. Joe Manchin supported the Inflation Reduction Act and now they're paying it forward, giving him this fossil fuel giveaway that his donors have been lobbying for for a very long time. Now the question is where do House progressives stand on this particular provision? Well, on September 9th, Raul Grihalva, along with more than 70 different House Democrats, sent a letter to Democratic Party leadership, urging them to not keep this provision in the must pass bill and also explaining why this is harmful and whatnot. But this letter is basically toothless, seeing that there's no implicit threat that they'll be voting against this legislation. Now Nancy Pelosi is known for not bringing bills to the floor for a vote unless she has the votes needed to pass it. So House Democrats, progressives in particular, can kill it unilaterally if they simply say, we're going to vote against this if you're going to put this in a must pass bill. And Pelosi wouldn't want to have there be this government shutdown right before the midterms. So progressives have a lot of leverage here, but they're not necessarily saying we're going to vote against this. We're just saying we're urging you to not put this in the must pass bill. But why would Nancy Pelosi who wants to see this pass keep this out of the must pass bill? Knowing that you're going to vote against this, she knows that you don't want to support this if you're a progressive. So that's why they're putting this in the must pass bill because they know that you don't want to be blamed for a government shutdown. So, you know, if progressives say, nope, you don't have our support. If this is going to lead to a government shutdown, so be it, they would take out this provision because they don't want a government shutdown. But because progressives are just saying, oh, well, we urge you to not put this in the must pass bill, it's not going to happen. Like, you're not going to really affect change this way. Having said that, though, that hasn't stopped the opposition to this from growing. Environmental groups, for example, have come out against this. And since Joe Manchin is still facing pushback from these groups, from progressives, even if it may be not necessarily that harsh. Well, he's enlisted the fossil fuel industry for help. But again, I've just got to say, if progressives in the house followed Bernie Sanders lead, he said, I'm voting against this. They did that same thing. You know, there wouldn't need to be this huge kerfuffle. It would be over. It would be taken out of the bill because Democrats are not going to want a government shutdown before the election. Now, Republicans, on the other hand, they would love to see a government shutdown before the election. But, you know, if they can somehow blame Democrats for that. But we don't necessarily know how this is going to play out yet. Joe Manchin, however, because there's so much opposition that's growing, he decided to hold a press conference to address the critics. And I don't know how to describe this as anything but a temper tantrum because he accuses Bernie Sanders, as I stated earlier, of doing revenge politics and take a look at specifically what he says. He is offering one small concession in releasing the text because this was previously being negotiated behind closed doors. But take a look at what he says about Bernie Sanders and progressives specifically. First of all, the text will be out tomorrow. Tomorrow, you'll have the text in full. That's a week before I think we'll probably move or do anything on the CR. So there'll be no ifs ands in between and guessing and assuming things of that sort. That gives everyone plenty of time. And you know, I thought about this and then I've watched this whole thing unfold from all different sides. I guess the old saying that politics make strange bedfellows. I got to be honest with that. I've been around for a long time and state politics and federal politics. I've never seen stranger bedfellows than Bernie Sanders and the the extreme liberal left siding up with the Republican leadership in the caucus. I've never seen this happen. So it's it's come to me. What I'm hearing is it's like a revenge politics and basically revenge towards one person. Me and I'm thinking this is not about me. This is about something that Bernie has never and Bernie has never supported anything about permitting reforms. And you're facing a country today. We've passed this out to you, I think, permitting timelines. If you look at what we do in the United States, five to ten years, that's a minimum. If you look at basically states that have countries that have vigorous environmental over oversights, one to three years, one to three years. And then if you look at what's happening now because of the energy crisis we have in the Ukraine war, you have EU is considering emergency bypassing of all environmental reviews. And we don't think we're in a crisis and we're not going to do anything about it. And we can. So in other words, Bernie Sanders is doing revenge politics because he's mad at you for blocking the Build Back Better Bill. Which was better than the Inflation Reduction Act. I mean, sure, you could say that maybe there are some house Democrats who are vengeful and they should be to be clear. But this is all about principle. This is about standing up for the environment and marginalized communities, indigenous people, who these pipelines that you're pushing through will affect. But Manchin doesn't really care about that. He's desperate and he wants to make sure that leadership doesn't get cold feet and they don't pull this from the must pass bill. So this is all the more reason for progressives to resist it. Now, also notice how he's using a crisis to try to push this agenda that his donors have wanted for a very long time. But he's trying to say, oh, we have this crisis and we have to do this right now. Let's get this done. No, motherfucker, you've been pushing this for so long. Don't pretend. Now, one more video I want to play for you. So this is from the same press conference and he's now going to turn his attention towards Republicans. And he makes it very clear they are still friends. He emphasizes this all throughout the press conference, but he's trying to make Republicans weary that they'll be seen as sympathetic towards a socialist Bernie Sanders if they choose to side with him by letting the, you know, perfect be the enemy of the good. Because this giveaway, even if it's not what they wanted, it's not everything that they had dreamed for with regard to their fossil fuel donors. It's still really good. And so, you know, support this. Otherwise, you might be seen as aligning with Bernie Sanders. And since he's bad, you should probably support my giveaway to the fossil fuel industry, even if it's not as robust and comprehensive as yours. Let's watch. But to have an opportunity that my I know there's part of my Democrats, the caucus and the far left liberals that Bernie is so proud of. We're never going to be for this. I knew that this is a bipartisan. It doesn't pass without the Republicans. And to have something that my Republican colleagues and the leadership knows this better than any Republican, you know, and they'll see this when the text comes out and they know that basically what they've tried to do. And I says, I applaud my colleague, Senator Capito, for putting something out and dropping a marker, a messaging bill that they support, that they supported, they support permitting reform. How in the world do you go home and explain it? Well, the perfect just wasn't perfect enough. So the perfect will be the enemy, the good when you've had no movement. So when do you ever see you're going to change the permitting till we can have the American people get relief from the high cost? When you take a pipeline, the Mountain Valley pipeline, nothing puts more product into the market quicker and helps relieve the shortages that we have right now. That pipeline's gone from 3.3 billion over 6.2 or 6.4 billion dollars just because of the permitting process they're going through. So I'm just saying we're looking at it in a reasonable, responsible way. Take me out of it shouldn't be revenge. If Bernie's upset with me, fine, I understand that. But let's look at the American public. Let's look at our constituents. If my Republican friends and colleagues in the leadership and Republican parties attacking me personally, take it away from me personally because that's going to be hard to go home and explain. Well, we did this and we voted against it because of Joe Manchin. There's no sense whatsoever. None whatsoever. So we're in this quandary right now. We're going to vote and it's going to be in the CR. Okay. And if they're willing to say we're going to close down the government because of a personal attack on me or basically not looking at the good of the country, this is what makes people sick about politics. Makes me sick about it. You know me, I vote across. But if it looks good, I don't care what's Republican or Democrat idea, I'm for it. As long as I can explain it, a lot of it makes sense. A lot of my Republican friends do things that I support and a lot of American Democrat and there's things that both do that I don't. This type of politics is something I can't accept. This is the type of politics that makes me sick and makes American public sick. And that, my friends, is a masterclass in moral grandstanding. Do you want to know what actually makes Americans sick, Joe Manchin? It's when Craven sniveling politicians like you pretend to care about working class people while you exclusively do the bidding of your donors. This time it's your fossil fuel industry donors. And seeing that Joe Manchin is a modern day coal baron. You know, he views this as personal. So I just love that Joe Manchin is throwing a temper tantrum because he thought that Republicans would support this because I mean, this is a giveaway to the fossil fuel industry. But right now Republicans, even if you're doing this giveaway to the fossil fuel industry, they don't want to support anything that would be perceived as a win for Democrats. And the ones who are really playing revenge politics in this instance to be fair are Republicans who don't like Manchin because he betrayed them by supporting the Inflation Reduction Act. So, you know, we'll have to see how this plays out. But I just love that Joe Manchin is squirming because I hope this fails. And if Republicans are the ones who end up tanking it, great, because it shouldn't go through. I don't care what reason they're using to justify voting against this. What I care about is they vote against this and it fails.