'I can’t get there'
| 'I can't get there'   It's a Washington earthquake.
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin went on Fox News and torpedoed President Joe Biden's social spending agenda, rebuked his own party's campaign promises and gutted hundreds of billions of dollars in US climate change pledges. The West Virginian announced that he could not vote for Biden's nearly $2 trillion Build Back Better plan, after months of negotiations with a President who has just seen his transformative dreams evaporate.
The timing, venue -- on a conservative news channel -- and substance of Manchin's announcement rocked the White House since the moderate senator had held private talks with Biden as recently as last week. Unless he changes his mind, the core of this presidency -- a bid to reorient the economy toward working Americans by funding pre-school, home health care for the sick and elderly and making medical care more affordable for everyone -- will fail. The legislation cannot pass the 50-50 Senate, where Democrats only have a majority because of tie-breaker votes by Vice President Kamala Harris, without Manchin's vote.
His decision devastates Biden's claims to be a master negotiator who could broker deals to usher complex legislation into law. It guts his hopes of being a historic reformer to stand alongside Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. And it is a devastating blow to progressive Democrats after Biden promised them he could bring Manchin along in order to win their support for a bipartisan infrastructure law they had used as leverage to secure the passage of the social spending and climate legislation. Enthusiasm among the most liberal voters Biden needs to show up next November to stave off a midterm election disaster is now likely to be severely compromised.
In the extraordinary interview on Sunday, Manchin announced he could not support the bill because he believed it would swell the national debt, add to rising inflation and distract the country from fighting the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. "I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. I just can't," Manchin said on Fox News Sunday. "I've tried everything humanly possible. I can't get there … this is a no on this legislation." The world and America At least 75 people died when Super Typhoon Rai roared ashore in the Philippines.
The Netherlands imposed a strict Covid-19 lockdown.
Architect Richard Rogers, who designed the Centre Pompidou in Paris, has died.
Meanwhile in America … Saturday Night Live locked out its audience.
Swathes of California suddenly turned white.
And a city in Michigan will inaugurate an all-Muslim government. What is in Biden's apparently doomed Build Back Better bill?
 'The nail in the coffin' Reaction to Manchin's decision was swift and biting from his fellow Democrats, but Republicans are gloating at the loss of the foundational policy of the Biden presidency.
In an extraordinarily blunt statement, White House press secretary Jen Psaki all but accused the West Virginian of betraying the President. "Senator Manchin's comments this morning on FOX are at odds with his discussions this week with the President, with White House staff, and with his own public utterances. Weeks ago, Senator Manchin committed to the President, at his home in Wilmington, to support the Build Back Better framework that the President then subsequently announced. Senator Manchin pledged repeatedly to negotiate on finalizing that framework 'in good faith,'" Psaki said.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose decades of campaigning are reflected in the bill that he helped write as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, demanded the measure be put up for a vote to expose Manchin. "I hope that we will bring a strong bill to the floor of the Senate as soon as we can and let Mr. Manchin explain to the people of West Virginia why he doesn't have the guts to stand up the powerful special interests," Sanders told CNN.
The most liberal Democrats in the House were especially furious. "Today, Senator Manchin has betrayed his commitment not only to the President and Democrats in Congress but most importantly, to the American people. He routinely touts that he is a man of his word, but he can no longer say that. West Virginians, and the country, see clearly who he is," Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in a statement.
Republicans, however, were jubilant at the demise of the most sweeping social reforms in decades. South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Manchin had "always stated that he will not support a bill full of gimmicks, a bill that added to the debt or a bill that made inflation worse." And Nebraska GOP Sen. Ben Sasse said, "President Biden's mega-spending bill is dead and Joe Manchin put the nail in the coffin. This should be a reality check to wild-eyed progressives that they are not the mainstream." Thanks for reading. From Monday, hospitality establishments and live events in Ireland face an 8 p.m. curfew due to increasing Omicron cases. New Covid-19 measures are introduced in the Australian state of Victoria. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, discusses the pandemic at a National Press Club online event. A meeting of the EU Environment Council takes place. Slovenia's Foreign Minister Anze Logar is due to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington, DC. View in browser | All CNN Newsletters
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