White House contacted Manchin after Harris talks in West Virginia



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The awareness comes after Harris’s apparent decision to pressure Manchin frustrated the Tory Democrat, which he made clear over the weekend.

The source declined to say what the White House told Manchin or who in the White House called him, but the call underscores the delicate balance President Joe Biden faces as he and Democrats attempt to hold a narrow majority in the Senate to adopt a radical Covid. back-up plan – and any other law this year.

The Senate’s partisan 50-50 split leaves little room for error in the White House and Manchin will be a key vote on any package.

Manchin appeared to express his frustration at a television interview Harris recently did in his home state to promote the US bailout last week.

In an interview with CNN affiliate WSAZ in West Virginia, Manchin bristled at Harris’s interview with the same station that took place on Thursday, suggesting that the administration had not given him a warning.

“I saw it. I couldn’t believe it. Nobody called me,” he said. “We are going to try to find a bipartisan way forward. I think we have to do it, but we have to work together. This is not a way of working together, which has been done.”

With new urgency, Biden makes his case to the American people for Covid-19 relief

Harris on Thursday promoted the $ 1.9 trillion Covid relief plan in interviews with TV stations in West Virginia and Arizona – states that are home to Democrats whose votes could be critical to pass Covid relief, including the Manchins in West Virginia and Senator Kyrsten Sinema with Senator Mark Kelly, who will face re-election in the state in 2022, in Arizona.

In an interview with WSAZ Thursday, Harris said that she and Biden believe it is important to “work with a sense of urgency” to deal with public health and the economic crisis. The vice president praised the package, saying it was “about reopening schools in a safe way, about getting support for small businesses, about getting relief for families.”

Harris also spoke about the economics of the West Virginia coal industry.

“All those skilled workers who work in the coal industry and transfer those skills to what we need to do in terms of the reclamation of abandoned landmines; what we need to do to stop leaks from oil and gas wells; and, transfer them skills that are important for the work that remains to be done and needs to be done, ”she said.

CNN’s Daniella Diaz contributed to this report.

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