Sen. Joe Manchin may say he’s standing with his Democrat Party but on Tuesday he was seen sitting with Republican colleagues during President Biden’s first State of the Union address.
Despite the fact that one of those Republican senators was Mitt Romney of Utah, the optics of Manchin’s choice to sit with GOP members of Congress rather than Democrats was not missed and he was peppered with Democrat criticism on social media.
Joe Manchin sat with Republicans on their side of the aisle during @POTUS #SOTU address tells you all you need to know about Manchin pic.twitter.com/tEkPw8THHL
— Henry Djoutsa 🇨🇲🇺🇸 Supports🇺🇦 (@D_jeneration) March 2, 2022
“Sen. Manchin sat with his colleague Sen. Romney to remind the American people and the world that bipartisanship works and is alive and well in the U.S. Senate,” Manchin’s spokesman told NBC News.
Everyone’s mad at Joe Manchin for sitting with Republicans. So they are segregated now and can’t sit together?
And yet, they expect Americans to be UNITED! 🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️
— MadeaMadAsHell 🇺🇲 (@MadeaMadAsHell2) March 2, 2022
The West Virginia lawmaker has been an outspoken critic of Biden’s signature Build Back Better legislation and has repeatedly stood his ground over not jumping aboard every Democrat agenda item.
“If I can’t go home and explain it to the people of West Virginia, I can’t vote for it. I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. I just can’t. I’ve tried everything possible, I can’t get there,” he told “Fox News Sunday” in December.
During Biden’s speech Tuesday, Manchin was seen sitting in between Romney and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.)
“Just as a show of solidarity between the two parties, bipartisanship, we worked together extensively over the last couple of years and plan on keeping it up,” Romney told NBC News.
Following the speech, Manchin explained that his decision to sit with Republicans was to show “unity.”
VIDEO: @SenatorRomney says he asked @Sen_JoeManchin to sit next to him at SOTU
Manchin, who sat with GOP Senators during the President’s speech says he was: “showing unity, working together. showing the whole world we’re together in standing behind Ukraine” pic.twitter.com/URL3sJ2nBV
— Kelly Phares (@kellyfphares) March 2, 2022
And while his GOP colleagues did not applaud the president’s remarks, Manchin was seen several times registering his approval, even standing up to clap at some points. However, he notably remained in his seat when Biden addressed the expanded child tax credit.
The president’s apparent attempt to breathe life back into his Build Back Better agenda during his speech did not seem to win over Democrat holdout Manchin.
“They just can’t help themselves,” he told reporters when asked about Biden’s remarks following the address. “I don’t know where that came from.”
“Nothing’s changed,” he added. “There might be parts they want to talk about. I don’t know. That was a little bit far.”
DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW
Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!
- The Florida candidate laser-focused on eradicating horrific animal crimes - March 22, 2024
- Sabo: ‘Rush was our GOAT, there was no equal and he made it look easy’ - February 18, 2024
- Dana Bash appears to want to crawl out of her own skin when Ramaswamy ‘goes there’ on J6 - December 7, 2023
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.
BPR INSIDER COMMENTS
Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!
