 I don't want to tell anyone how to think. I hope that if you're watching this program, you're not like taking everything that I say as gospel and I hope that you're thinking critically and I hope that you're questioning and fact-checking everything that I say. But if you are one of the folks who really do feel as if I have been influenced over you and your opinion on politics, then you should definitely hate Joe Manchin. That's the one thing I want you to take away from this podcast. The motherfucker is so smug, so insufferable, and even though him and Kirsten Sinema both kind of ideologically align and they're on the far right of the Democratic Party and they're unilaterally holding up any negotiations with regard to the stimulus, the way that he goes about it makes it that much more insufferable because he doesn't just say, I don't agree with this because I'm conservative. He'll try to concertral and say, well, you know, I don't think that we should means test this new stimulus package because I want less people to get support. I just really look out for the little guy, care that the little guy is getting support and that we're not helping out people who don't need it. Like it's all insufferable. And you can tell that even MSNBC is getting irritated with him. And you saw this subtle jab in an interview that he did on Morning Joe where they juxtapose the Republican governor of West Virginia and him saying he supports Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus with Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator, saying, don't really support it. Like he he claims to support it. Again, this is why I hate him. He's so disingenuous. But then he has reasons X, Y and Z as to why he can't he can't get on board. Watch what he has to say here and why he is not going to support the $1.9 trillion stimulus, at least as it stands. Economy is going to sputter and we've got to get ourselves out of this mess and it's the way we need to go. West Virginia's Republican Governor Jim Justice voicing his strong support for the administration's COVID relief bill, the state's Democratic senator Joe Manchin believes the stimulus needs to be more targeted. And he joins us now from the Capitol. Senator Manchin, great to have you with us. So you're the man of the hour here. Good. What's it? What's it going to be? Is this going to be closer to two trillion dollars in this package? Or is it going to end up being more targeted? The worst thing we can do is put a price tag on it. We just get what the needs of the people are and basically how we keep the economy going, how we keep people basically ready for this economy to come rolling back and they're prepared to be part of it. So if it's 1.9 trillion, so be it. If it's a little smaller than that and we find the targeted need and that's what we're going to do. But I want it to be bipartisan. So if they think that they're going to basically we're going to throw all caution to the wind and just shove it down people's throat, that's not going to happen. Chuck Schumer said yesterday on the floor, he said this is going to be a bipartisan process. We encourage your bipartisan process. That means Democrats and Republicans will have amendments. We have many, many opportunities to make the necessary changes and make your point. And that's what it's about. The process needs to work. He really cares, you guys. It's just that he wants this to be targeted. He wants to make sure that someone who's making 150 to $200,000 per year don't get this stimulus because that could be taking it away from someone who really needs it, except here's the problem with that theory. If you make it universal and you just tax it all later so that way, if someone really is making above the income threshold that you're imposing here, gets that stimulus when they weren't supposed to, will you just get it back from them? Think of it as a temporary tax break. Like he's making this more complicated. If you genuinely cared about the American people, that means testing only slows things down and you concern trolling, pretending to care about the working class and them really needing it like you're not you're not convincing anyone. And he's such a fool that he contradicted himself like within seconds. So he says, look, the worst thing we can do is put a price tag on it. Then seconds later, he says, I want it to be bipartisan. OK, well, you have to pick one or the other. Because Republicans are putting a price tag on it. They're taking Joe Biden's one point nine trillion dollar proposal and they're cutting it by like 75 percent and they're saying this is what we want. So you want to make sure that the American people get what they need. And if it's going to be one point nine trillion, then so be it. But at the same time, you want the Republicans to get on board. But they're saying they're not going to get on board with it. So the question is, what are you going to do as a Democrat? Are you going to hold everything up for everyone in the country until we get at least one or two Republicans on board? Or are you actually going to do what you say you want to do, which is help the American people? It's just it's so insufferable. He's holding the entire Democratic Party back, even more so than other corporate Democrats. The good news, however, about Joe Manchin is that he's an idiot and he is very easy to persuade. So all you have to do is is exert a minimal amount of public pressure and he will buckle. We've seen him buckle on, you know, the direct cash payments. And he's also against the minimum wage. He doesn't want it to be fifteen dollars an hour. He wants it to be eleven dollars an hour. I guarantee that if Democrats push him enough and he faces public backlash, he'll buckle on that as well. Because Joe Joe Manchin, he doesn't have like an underlying governing philosophy. Like he's kind of naive in the sense that as long as Republicans and Democrats are holding hands and singing kumbaya, as long as whatever legislation is passed is like bipartisan right down the middle and that Democrats get 50 percent and Republicans get 50 percent. That's that's all that he cares about, because that is the most surest way that the donors who fund both parties are going to be appeased. But he has no spine. He has no backbone. So you can get him to budge. Kirsten Sinema, on the other hand, I don't know because she's a newer member of Congress, but we've been dealing with Joe Manchin Joe Manchin's bullshit for a really long time and he is easy to manipulate. But what I want to do is I want to show you a clip of Bernie Sanders. He was on the view and he was asked his thoughts on bipartisanship and listen to what he says, because his reasoning is very different for bipartisanship and his reasoning as to why this is a necessity is a lot different than what Joe Manchin says. So, Bernie, President Biden said yesterday he's open to compromise on some aspects of the nearly two trillion dollar proposal for COVID relief. And he met with Republicans earlier this week to hear them out. You've been very clear that your priority is moving this as quickly as possible through whether Republicans are on board or not. I have a question. What's the downside of your proposal, if any, let's say we move it right through without without any Republicans involved. Is there a downside to that at all? Or should we just do it? Well, Joy, look, I think we all want bipartisanship. I hope Republicans join us. But the most important issue right now is to understand that working families in this country today are in more economic desperation than they have been since the Great Depression. I don't have to tell you in my own city, Burlington, Vermont, which is doing better than many other locations around the country. Hundreds of people have lined up in their cars for emergency food delivery help. All across the country, families are struggling to prevent eviction in the midst of the pandemic. People can't afford to go out and find a doctor. We have a pandemic today, which is taking some 3,000 lives every single day. We're not getting the vaccines out as quickly as we can. Half of our people are living paycheck to paycheck. Millions are working for starvation wages. In other words, we face more problems today than at any time since the Great Depression. And we got to move for working families and we got to move yesterday. And I intend to do this as quickly as we can. That right there is what Joe Manchin would be saying if he actually cared about getting these checks out. You see, if you if you genuinely cared as much as you say you do, that that interview on Morning Joe was like more than 10 minutes, I think. And the entire time he's trying to emphasize how much he really cares. And he wants to help out the American people and save the economy. If you actually cared, that's what you would be saying. What Bernie Sanders said. He listed the specific reasons why we can't wait. And even though it would be wonderful to have the Republicans on board, they're not going to get on board. So the question is, do we want to actually give the American people relief now? Or do we want to twirl our thumbs waiting for Republicans to find a heart and jump on board? That's that's inconceivable. It's not going to happen. So if you actually care about the American people, as you say you do, Joe Manchin, which he doesn't, there wouldn't be any stipulations. You wouldn't say, well, you know, I'm only willing to support the $1,400 checks, which they should be 2000 if their means tested further. I'm only willing to support the minimum wage. If it's, you know, $11 an hour, I'm only willing to support this $1.9 trillion stimulus package if it has bipartisan support. These are all excuses that amount to nothing more than you concern trolling and ultimately getting in the way of your party delivering relief to the American people. So what's it going to be? I think we all know where Joe Manchin's loyalties lie. He is a Republican. He cares about his donors. He couldn't care less about the people in West Virginia. He's a political opportunist, and he loves that he has so much power right now. Right? He's kind of like always going to be the swing vote so long as the Senate is split 50 50. So he loves that whenever Democrats propose something, it basically has to go through him. Oh, what's that? You want to do this incremental reform? Well, it needs to be even more incremental and it needs to be further means tested. Or I'm not going to get on board without me. You can't pass it like he loves all this. So if he likes this attention, then I think that we should give him exactly what he wants. Give him that attention that he's so desperate for. Pressure him, give him a call. Let his office know that he's holding up money that you desperately need. There needs to be a massive public pressure campaign. And I am confident that Joe Manchin is someone who can budge, who we can get to budge, because again, I don't think he's very bright. Kirsten Sinema, on the other hand, again, I don't know if she is a little bit more stubborn. But Joe Manchin is stupid enough to where we can actually control him. Right now, he's soaking in the spotlight, but this isn't going to stand for very long. He's enjoying basically being the most powerful senator in Congress right now. But that isn't going to last very long because the peasants are going to revolt if you give them nothing but crumbs and they're starving. So get it together. Shut the fuck up, stop making up excuses and pass the goddamn steam list, Joe Manchin, for fuck's sake.