The White House, January 20, 2021 © David Burnett/Contact Press Images
On December 19, Senator Joe Manchin appeared on Fox News Sunday to discuss the Build Back Better Act, having given the White House half an hour’s notice of the verdict he would solemnly render. “I’ve tried everything humanly possible” to find a way to support the bill, the yacht-dwelling West Virginia coal baron insisted, but “this is a no.” He could not explain “this mammoth piece of legislation” to his voters, he added later. It would “dramatically reshape our society in a way that leaves our country even more vulnerable to the threats we face,” by which he meant…
