Even casual observers of politics have noticed that the left has no tolerance for dissent. Everyone must march lock step in support of their radical agenda. Further proof of this came from MSNBC’s 11th Hour host Brian Williams Thursday night when he bitterly complained about West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin (D).
Williams echoed the left’s frustration with Joe Manchin’s refusal to give into their demands to do away with the filibuster. At the beginning of the segment, he played a clip of Manchin expressing a desire for bipartisanship. Once it was over, Williams went to his guests, NBC News Correspondent Garrett Haake, New York Times Political Correspondent Lisa Lehrer, and former federal prosecutor Barb McQuade. Williams asked Haake this loaded question: “What makes him (Manchin) a Democrat?”
In a rare moment of honesty on MSNBC, Haake corrected partisan shill Williams by saying:
And as to what makes him a Democrat, Manchin takes a lot of grief for his position on the filibuster and on the voting rights bill, which he does not support, which are things that separate him from the majority of his party, but he has voted with President Biden on every vote that has mattered so far the only time he broke with them was on the Neera Tanden nomination.
In fact, according to FiveThirtyEight’s congressional vote tracker, Manchin votes in line with Biden’s agenda 100% of the time.
Williams didn't seem to realize that by asking that question, he was admitting Democrats are wild partisans. It's as if the establishment media are trying to force Manchin to switch parties.
Later in the segment, Williams asked exasperatedly why Biden “seems so determined to continuing (sic) to pursue bipartisanship?”
In response, Lisa Lerer explained in a frustrated tone:
Well, in part because of Joe Manchin, right? There's a real advantage for Biden in continuing to push this, at least to a certain point, because he, even without Republican support, cannot get this legislation through the senate without the support of these moderate Democrats like Joe Manchin, like Kyrsten Sinema who want to see that he made every possible effort to get some kind of bipartisan legislation.
There you have it, if only Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema would give in and vote to do away with the filibuster, then Joe Biden and congressional Democrats can have their Socialist utopia.
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Read the transcript below by clicking "expand:"
The 11th Hour With Brian Williams
06/03/2021
11:06 p.m.BRIAN WILLIAMS: Let's bring in our leadoff guests on this Thursday night shall we, Garrett Haake, our NBC News correspondent covering Capitol Hill, who you saw got a chance to speak with Senator Joe Manchin today. Also with us, Lisa Lehrer, national political correspondent with The New York Times, and Barb McQuade, a veteran federal prosecutor, former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. She worked with DOJ during the Biden transition. She is a professor at her alma mater, University of Michigan Law School, and co-host of the podcast "Sisters In Law", along with three other friends of ours, Joyce Vance, Jill Winebanks and Kimberly Atkins-Store. So good evening and welcome to you all. Garrett, it's good to see you. Let me start by playing more of your exchange with Senator Manchin we'll discuss on the other side.
JOE MANCHIN (AUDIO CLIP): My Democrat colleagues have known me for over ten years. They've watched my voting pattern. It's been the most bipartisan voting pattern in the Senate, ok? So for them to think I’ve changed my voting pattern because I want to be in a position of being that one person in the middle, that never happened -- everything changed. I didn’t change. I represent the state of West Virginia. That's who hired me, I represent them in the best possible fashion I can, and I'm not going to get in a situation where I'm placating to different people that want different things. It's my state. The more things we do in a partisan fashion, and not trying to do it in a bipartisan fashion, separates us further. It's not good for our country.
WILLIAMS: So Garrett, buddy, to be straight up with ya, I'm going to start with two questions, both of which may require just a hint of analysis from the reporter, and here they are. What makes him a Democrat? And is he, as so many people believe, secretly really enjoying this moment?
GARRETT HAAKE: Well, I don't think it's a secret that Manchin enjoys being in the middle of all these discussions and being in a position where his politics are driving a lot or driving at least some of what the senate’s doing. He has, as he laid out there, a very specific idea of how the senate should function. He wants to see it function in a bipartisan way. That may be a complete anachronism for our modern senate. Certainly a lot of his Democratic colleagues in that body thinks so, but that's the way he’s chosen to operate. And as to what makes him a Democrat, Manchin takes a lot of grief for his position on the filibuster and on the voting rights bill, which he does not support, which are things that separate him from the majority of his party, but he has voted with President Biden on every vote that has mattered so far the only time he broke with them was on the Neera Tanden nomination. We are here in West Virginia because he is touring part of the state with the Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm talking about ways in which West Virginia can participate in a clean energy future. So he's trying in his own way to be a team player, but he is hard core dug in on his idea of how the senate should work in a bipartisan way, and that will frustrate many, many of his colleagues particularly on those two key issues the voting rights bill the Democrats want to pass and the filibuster that they would need to remove to do so.
WILLIAMS: Uh say Lisa, do you care to guess why Biden seems so determined to continuing to pursue bipartisanship?
LISA LERER: Well, in part because of Joe Manchin, right? There's a real advantage for Biden in continuing to push this, at least to a certain point, because he, even without Republican support, cannot get this legislation through the senate without the support of these moderate Democrats like Joe Manchin, like Kyrsten Sinema who want to see that he made every possible effort to get some kind of bipartisan legislation. At some point his patience will run thin. The White House, as we saw in the intro, has sort of pushed back on this idea of a Monday timeline which was floated earlier this week. But you know the president and the administration is facing sort of a new push, a little bit of impatience from their left flank, which is also important. So at some point these negotiations will end and you know, they'll either have a bipartisan deal or the White House will go it alone and try to push something through with Democratic support on reconciliation. A lot of money in Washington thinks the latter is the more likely outcome, but he can't get to that point without going through a really robust negotiation process with Republicans.
(....)
11:12 p.m.
WILLIAMS: Garrett, back over to you to a point Lisa made -- Biden's talking to Republicans tomorrow. His left flank and the demonstrably angry flank of the Democratic Party is getting antsy because it now kinda passes as gospel in Washington that these next three months for him could be ball game. And you know how politics works and the obsession with the midterms and then the exception eh, eh, eh, eh, eh -- you know what I mean -- with the general election coming up in 2024 before you know it.
HAAKE: Yeah I think that's exactly right. You look at things coming down the pike for Democrats in congress, the infrastructure bill, whether or not they can do a deal on police reform, which Tim Scott the Republican negotiator indicated needs to be settled in June. Whether or not there's a deal to be had -- on changing gun rules in this country. The voting rights package that I already mentioned. All of these things are teed up for potential success for Democrats and for the administration if they can get there, and I think this goes back to the frustration with Manchin. At least in theory these things are easier to do if you were to get rid of the legislative filibuster, but Manchin’s reticence on those issues, and on infrastructure tell me the Democrats don't have 50 votes, much less 60. And that's the hardball politics of it here. The coalition for Democrats is incredibly small. The 50 in the senate gets the press but they only have a four-vote margin in the house, too. And all it takes is for a couple of progressive members there to decide they want to throw their weight around just like Joe Manchin does and then none of this moves. So yes, time is very short here for Democrats and we're getting into a little bit of a traffic jam with all of the things that would need to be done on a timely basis when timely isn't what the Senate in particular does well especially without some kind of hard deadline.
