Joe Manchin: How Democrats miscalculated West Virginia senator and then won him back

The resulting confusion and chaos – and the lack of communication between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and his most important decisive vote – put Washington on edge, threatened to blow up a delicately negotiated compromise and forced Democrats to keep a vote open longer than anything in modern history. – nearly 12 p.m. – as they engaged in a furious lobbying and bargaining campaign to get Manchin on board.

Privately, about a half-dozen Democratic senators were engaged in constant talks with Manchin, hoping to find a way to win him back – just as Republican Senator from Ohio Rob Portman spoke with Manchin several times an hour. of his own alternative that Manchin supported. but that the Democratic leaders wanted to conquer.

“I was trying to be the receiver of the rye. I was trying to get it to talk to the leaders,” said Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine who said he spoke “constantly” with Manchin on Friday. “My goal was to get him to talk and not let him fall apart.”

For Biden, however, the approach amounted to a soft sell. He was deliberately careful not to add pressure to the situation, choosing instead to give Manchin space and listen to his concerns, a source familiar with the discussion said. But Biden underlined an overarching point: how crucial it was to reach an agreement to bring the bill to the finish line given the urgency of the current economic and public health crisis. Manchin, two sources said, was urged by the president to do what he thought was right – essentially vote his conscience.

It was a reflection of a relationship that several sources said has been strong since Biden took office – Manchin believing Biden to be an honest broker, and Biden aware that Manchin is his own senator and does not take kindly. to be stuck.

Manchin, who called his Friday conversation with Biden “good”, said on Saturday that the talks “had taken longer than expected.” But he added: “We did it, and we got a better deal.”

“Let’s just say we had projects that lasted 12 hours,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said. “It took a little longer than expected.

Manchin had privately signed a GOP plan

Days earlier, Manchin had pledged to support an alternative Portman plan, which proposed extending unemployment benefits to $ 300 per week until July, cutting benefits by $ 100 in the bill passed by the Bedroom.

But Democrats, fearing the Portman Plan would pass, have been working privately behind the scenes to move forward with their own proposal to avoid the Portman Plan. The new Democratic plan would also reduce the benefits to $ 300 but extend them until September. And to avoid backlash from the left by simply cutting back on the benefits, they added a sweetener: make sure the first $ 10,200 wouldn’t be taxed.

By mid-morning on Friday, Democratic leaders felt confident in their leadership. They believed Manchin had approved the proposal, after his conversations with another voter, Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Delaware Senator Tom Carper, the plan’s main sponsor. But Manchin said on Friday morning that he had no knowledge of the tax provision.

“I’ve never heard of it at all. It’s the first time I’ve heard of it, that morning. I said, ‘Wait a minute,'” Manchin told reporters about Saturday. of this provision.

And he bluntly told his colleagues on Friday that he would not vote for the plan unless there were changes, prompting a one-day lobbying effort and leaving many of his colleagues perplexed.

Asked by CNN why he did not resolve his differences with Manchin on the front end, Schumer suggested he was surprised by his West Virginia colleague’s refusal.

“People have new differences all the time,” Schumer said Saturday after the bill was passed. He added, “These eight hours don’t make sense compared to the relief the American people are going to receive. And if it helped us get there, so much the better.”

The inability to resolve their differences on the front-end has surprised many Democrats, as the two have a frank and direct relationship.

“I really like my whole caucus,” Schumer said. Even Manchin? “Yes. Absolutely,” said the New York Democrat.

But many feared that the whole effort might fall apart.

On Friday, as Schumer, Carper and others scrambled to resolve Manchin’s problem, Carper sat alone on a couch in the private Senate lobby. He was hunched over with his head almost between his knees and a phone clamped to his ear. He looked both pained by what was going on and determined to fix it. He later told a Republican colleague that things looked grim.

“We’re stuck,” Carper told Cornyn in the halls of the Senate.

“It was frustrating,” said Stabenow, when asked about the nearly 12-hour Senate stalemate. “We were trying to find a way forward, which we did. I always thought it was possible. I always thought we would.”

One day horseback riding and arm twist

Manchinese and Democratic leaders were frantically exchanging proposals back and forth, several sources close to the talks said. Manchin, according to a source familiar with the matter, wanted the amendment to be split in half so that the Senate could vote separately on the $ 300 weekly unemployment benefit and the non-taxable component.

Without the two items wrapped together, however, Democratic leaders knew the tax-free piece would fail. Leaders have repeatedly tried to get Manchin to understand that what the Senior West Virginia Senator was asking would not pass in the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi had her own narrow margin and a group of progressives were already upset by the removal of the minimum wage of $ 15. of the Senate bill.

“It was pretty clear that there was tremendous pressure,” South Dakota Senator John Thune, the No. 2 Republican, said. “In a Senate situation with narrow margins, every man is a king and every woman is a queen.”

The White House has been involved and consulted throughout, with officials working on the number of different proposals being exchanged, officials said. But they were also aware that this was an issue negotiated by the main Senate Democrats – and made a point of being available, but not pushy, officials said. Biden was available, but would end up making just one call to Manchin. He remained in contact with Schumer throughout, however.

A senior administration official specifically designated Carper and the senses. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Jon Tester of Montana and Mark Warner of Virginia, as well as Schumer, as people who “deserve huge credit” for working on the final compromise.

The main focus of the White House throughout the hours of talks was to ensure that any deal would not change the general contours of the bailout, the official said. This baseline, which was the driving force behind the creation of the plan itself, was to ensure that aid “goes to the people who really need it and to be realistic about how long it will take to get it done. ‘economy to recover,’ the official said.

The final deal with Manchin, White House officials determined, would still achieve those goals. Biden agreed.

“The end result is pretty much the same, so I don’t think any of the compromises fundamentally altered the essence of what I put in the bill in the first place,” Biden told reporters. Saturday after the vote.

Ultimately, they all signed on to a plan to cap the eligibility of the non-taxable component for households with annual incomes below $ 150,000 and to extend the $ 300 of weekly benefits until September 6.

Once the deal was done, senators were ready to vote. But it wouldn’t be until an hour before midnight that the Senate would begin to seriously vote on the flood of amendments proposed by Republicans, forcing Senators to spend a sleepless night as Democrats reject GOP calls for adjournment. until Saturday morning.

Sen. Jim Inhofe, an 86-year-old Republican from Oklahoma who told CNN he suffered a concussion last week after falling on the ice, said he remained up all night until ‘in the final vote to pass the bill shortly after noon on Saturday. But it was not easy.

“It made a very difficult night,” Inhofe said of his concussion.

As they waited for the final vote to start on Saturday, Manchin walked over to Portman’s office and the two spoke for several minutes in a very friendly and spirited manner.

As Manchin was about to leave, they gave a little Covid-inspired hug, pushing their shoulders together, and Portman very quickly put his arm around Manchin’s back.

Asked about the exchange later, Portman said: “We have to continue to work together and I appreciate that he kept his word and bought into my proposal even though he was firmly convinced that he would not. looked a while like 12 hours ago and said, “Joe, your arm looks a little mangled. Was he crooked? “”