Sen. Joe Manchin criticised President Joe Biden on Saturday after he called for the closure of coal plants throughout the US, calling his comments “outrageous and disconnected from reality” and said it’s “time he learn a lesson.”
On Friday, Biden said, “We’re going to be closing down these facilities all throughout America and having wind and solar also provide tax credits to assist families buy energy-efficient appliances,” during a stop in Carlsbad, California, to discuss the CHIPS and Science Act.
The statements were pounced upon by Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat with longstanding ties to the coal industry, who said in a statement on Saturday that they “ignore the great economic pain the American people are experiencing due of rising energy costs.”
“Comments like these are why the American people are losing faith in President Biden and believing that he does not comprehend the necessity for an all-encompassing energy policy that will keep our country completely energy independent and secure. It appears that his beliefs fluctuate depending on the audience and the current political climate. Politicizing the energy policies of our country will only result in higher costs and more suffering for the American people, Manchin concluded.
Manchin, a moderate Democrat who has declined to state whether he believes Biden deserves a second term, frequently criticises the vice president’s agenda, and his unwillingness to support Democratic ideas has occasionally hindered the president from attaining some legislative objectives. But Saturday’s remarks are a remarkable rebuke of his party’s leader by a sitting US senator, and they serve to highlight the ongoing conflict between the centrist and more progressive wings of the Democratic Party.
Let me be clear, this is something the President has never stated to me, Manchin said in his remarks, attempting to further distance himself from Biden who is up for reelection in 2024.
“It is disrespectful and terrible to be casual about the loss of coal jobs for men and women in West Virginia and around the nation who have essentially put their lives on the line to help construct and power this country. It is time for the President to realise that his words matter and have repercussions, and that he owes these outstanding workers an immediate and public apology.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the press secretary for the White House, responded in a statement on Saturday, calling Biden’s remarks “twisted.”
“The President regrets it if anyone who heard these words took offence. His remarks yesterday have been misinterpreted to reflect a meaning that was not meant. As it has been since its earliest days as an energy giant, America is once again in the midst of an energy transition. The President was making a comment on this fact of economics and technology, Jean-Pierre stated.
The only time Manchin was specifically referenced in Jean-speech Pierre’s was when she referred to him as a “tireless advocate for his state and the hard-working men and women who live there.”
