Manchin: I'm Emboldened on Reconciliation Bill Stance by Elections – Inflation Not Transitory and We'll Have to Handle Afghanistan 'Fallout'

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said the election results on Tuesday have emboldened him to ensure the reconciliation bill doesn’t harm the economy, inflation isn’t transitory, “And then we have a geopolitical fallout from Afghanistan that we’re going to have to deal with sooner or later somewhere in the world.”

Manchin stated, [relevant remarks begin around 2:50] “Well, if you don’t take in[to] consideration what people are going through at the gas pumps and at the grocery stores, the inflation that’s coming, at first, we thought it was transitory. If you recall, Bret, about a month or more ago I said, let’s take a strategic pause. Let’s see where we are. We don’t know about COVID. It kept — the variants of COVID kept going up and down. We weren’t sure whether it was going to have an effect on our economy. They kept saying, well, this inflationary thing is basically going to be maybe transitory, and we’re finding out it’s not. And then we have a geopolitical fallout from Afghanistan that we’re going to have to deal with sooner or later somewhere in the world. And I said, the need that we have right now of all the aspirational things in the reconciliation bill, most of that is covered in the ARP bill with the American Rescue Plan that we voted [on] in January.”

He added, “We have people covered clear up through 2022 and beyond. So, it wasn’t like it’s urgent, and I don’t know why we’re acting like it’s so urgent.”

Host Bret Baier then asked, “So, does this result last night embolden you to make sure that the Build Back Better or the reconciliation bill does no harm to the economy?”

Manchin responded, “Oh, absolutely. … I’m concerned. I’ve been talking about our debt. I’ve been talking about inflation. I’ve been talking about the fallout we may have and all of these things.”

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