 Senator Joe Manchin, of course, abruptly pulled the plug this week on the Democrats. No, Martha, he didn't abruptly, Martha, let me just agree on that. Okay, he abruptly, on Friday did that. He didn't abruptly do anything. He established the president's agenda. No. Look, if you checked the record six months ago, I made it clear that you have people like Manchin, cinema 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 continue to talk to Manchin like he was serious. He was not. This is a guy who is a major recipient of fossil fuel. Money, a guy who has received campaign contributions from 25 Republican billionaires. Okay, Senator, I want, okay, you say he wasn't serious, but Manchin says his main goal is to do what's good for West Virginia. And he's worried about inflation. Listen to what he told us. Really, really, listen to this, please. Is that inflation is absolutely killing many, many people. They can't buy gasoline to have a hard time buying groceries. Everything they buy and consume for their daily lives is a hardship to him. Your reaction to that, Senator. Look, the same nonsense that Manchin has been talking about for a year. West Virginia has a beautiful state, and I've had the pleasure of being there. Great people. It is one of the poorest states in this country. You asked the people of West Virginia whether they want to expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing, and eyeglasses. You asked the people of West Virginia whether we should demand that the wealthiest people in large corporations start paying their fair share of taxes. Ask the people of West Virginia whether or not all people should have health care as a human right like in every other country on earth. That's what they will say. In my humble opinion, you know, Manchin represents the very wealthiest people in this country, not working families in West Virginia or America. That was Senator Bernie Sanders condemning Joe Manchin for what he is. A saboteur. This is not a good-faith actor, and it is long past time for the Democratic Party to stop treating him as if he's a good-faith actor who's just really looking out for the needs of his constituents. And he keeps tanking climate legislation or anything with regard to climate change or environmental issues because he's worried about inflation. He doesn't care. So it's time to stop pretending as if this is a good-faith actor. And that's what Bernie Sanders is speaking to here. This is somebody who is a saboteur. Now, if you've watched this program for a while, I have talked about how Manchin has used his political career to financially benefit his coal company and also how his ties to the fossil fuel industry, more broadly speaking, are extensive. So it's not like this connection to the fossil fuel industry is some obscure fact. It is now public knowledge. Even mainstream media has extensively detailed the way that he has used his political career to benefit not just the fossil fuel industry, but his coal company. So it's time for the Democratic Party to take action and punish him because just letting Manchin be Manchin has been a colossal failure. That's what Ilhan Omar said in an interview on MSNBC. She said it's time for the Democratic Party leadership to take action. Here's what she said. It's really disappointing, not surprising. We knew when the Build Back Better agenda was decoupled that this was ultimately going to happen. I don't know why Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer still allows for Manchin to be the chair of the Energy Committee. I don't know why our party hasn't decided to make the case and pressure Manchin to do the right thing in advancing the Democratic agenda and the President's agenda. I think we ultimately have to come to terms that what we are doing at the moment and the way that we are dealing with Manchin isn't working in advancing the Democratic agenda and the President's agenda. And so we must change course. She's absolutely correct. It's time for people to stop looking at Manchin exclusively and also start directing their ire at the Democratic Party's leaders because they have done nothing to rein in rogue members of their caucus. Chuck Schumer is the Senate Majority Leader. Why is he allowing a modern-day coal baron to serve as the chair of the Senate Energy Committee? I mean, there's kind of a conflict of interest there. No, he is a coal baron. His family owns a coal company. Throughout his career, even when he was a state senator in West Virginia and governor, he did everything in his power to make sure that that company was benefited by his policies. And yet he serves as the chair of the Senate Energy Committee. Why is Chuck Schumer allowing this to happen? More importantly, why has the President of the United States not publicly condemned Manchin even a single time? He'll vaguely refer to two votes that he's missing in the Senate, but as President, you can use your bully pulpit to exert maximum pressure. I mean, you've tried just letting Manchin do his thing, treating him as if he is a good faith actor and that has failed colossally. So now it's time for people to start directing their ire at Biden and members of the Democratic Party establishment who refuse to rein in Joe Manchin. And just to give you a sense of how self-serving this politician is, Manchin has taken steps actually to protect the environment it's just the environment where his mansion is located. As Daniel Boguslav, the Intercept, writes, while Manchin has sabotaged federal efforts at combating climate change, he has used federal dollars to preserve his own corner of the world. Public records reviewed by the Intercept show that even after Manchin's decades-long efforts to append environmental policy that would undercut the fossil fuel company's funding, his political campaigns, and the waste coal industry generating his personal fortune, he and his wife Gail Manchin have directed millions of federal dollars to a small pristine valley in West Virginia where the couple owns a condo. Hundreds of miles north of the coal communities decimated by the mountaintop removal mining that Manchin fostered in the state, the mansion's Canaan Valley residents sits in an unadulterated watershed surrounded by the Dolly Saud's wilderness, the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge, and Blackwater Falls State Park. The couple purchased the condo in Davis, West Virginia in 2011. According to the deed in 2018, Manchin used his spot on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee to secure $7 million to rebuild the visitor center at the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge less than a mile from his condo. So he cares about the environment, it's just the environment where his condo is, not the planet that we all live on because when it comes to the habitability of our planet, Joe Manchin is old, so he's not going to see the worst of what climate change has to offer. So, so long as the environment around him is protected, then he's okay with that. So this is the type of person who we're dealing with. He is the textbook example of a bad-faith actor and the Democratic Party establishment has done nothing to reign him in. They're too busy condemning progressives and trying to stop progressives from winning primary campaigns against incumbent corporate Democrats. So yes, it is true that everything Sanders is saying here is accurate about Joe Manchin, but it is time for the president to understand that if he does not act, the failure is on him, not on Manchin. When you look back at the history book, sure, Manchin is going to have a role here, but ultimately this is going to be a failure of the Biden administration. And so one criticism that I have of Bernie Sanders and Ilhan Omar is that as much as it's evident that Joe Biden is too afraid to criticize Manchin, progressives have got to stop being too afraid to criticize Joe Biden, call out Joe Biden, call on him to do more. Now thankfully Ilhan Omar did that there, but Bernie Sanders has been really reluctant to criticize Joe Biden and maybe that's because he feels as if, if he has the president's ear, then he can influence him in a positive direction. But I'm sorry Bernie, that's been a demonstrable failure. So now it is time to condemn Biden for not exerting pressure on Manchin. Biden could threaten to fire his wife, Manchin's wife who he gave a job to. Biden could threaten to use the DOJ to investigate Manchin's daughter who was involved in a price fixing scheme regarding EpiPen when she was a big pharmaceutical CEO. There are things that Biden can do, extraordinary measures that Biden can take, but at a minimum, just name and shame him. Do you think that Donald Trump when he was president would allow just two senators to destroy his entire agenda whenever they were blocking, whenever Lisa Murkowski or Susan Collins were holding up Trump's agenda, he condemned them, he condemned people who he called rhinos. It's time for Biden to stop sitting idly by and letting people like Manchin dictate his presidency. But you see, the thing about this is Biden is not calling out Joe Manchin because I think that deep down he agrees with Manchin. I mean, actions speak louder than words. So if you just let somebody dictate the terms of your presidency, let somebody dictate what you claim is your agenda, then I'm sorry, you're complicit in that. So this is where we're at. Bernie Sanders and Ilhan Omar are absolutely correct, but nothing is going to change. Manchin will continue to sabotage the Democratic Party's agenda purposefully so until the Democratic Party itself, its leaders, takes action to reign in Joe Manchin.