Senator Joe Manchin at NETL. July 7, 201. Photo Simon Edelman, Energy Department.
Joe Manchin, Democrat Senator from West Virginia, blasted President Biden over Biden’s speech attacking coal, the bedrock of WV’s economy. As Charles Lipson writes in the Spectator, Sen. Manchin was furious over Biden’s promise to shut down all of America’s coal-fired power plants.
Joe Manchin didn’t just criticize Biden. “He blasted him full-bore, and threw the lifeless carcass over his shoulder on the way back to the truck,” adds Mr. Lipson:
From Joe Manchin:
“President Biden’s comments are not only outrageous and divorced from reality, they ignore the severe economic pain the American people are feeling because of rising energy costs.
…Being cavalier about the loss of coal jobs for men and women in West Virginia and across the country who literally put their lives on the line to help build and power this country is offensive and disgusting.
The President owes these incredible workers an immediate and public apology and it is time he learn(s) a lesson that his words matter and have consequences.”
Manchin’s criticism puts Biden in an untenable lose-lose position, continues Mr. Liston:
If the president apologizes, as Manchin demands, he not only looks weak, he loses the party activists and donors he was appealing to.
If he refuses to retract his statement, he hurts Democratic senatorial candidate Tim Ryan, running in Ohio, where coal is a major economic driver in the southeastern part of the state. Ryan will undoubtedly try to distance himself from Biden’s comments, but that takes him off-message and hurts him among the wealthier environmentalist voters who are now a core Democratic constituency.
Time to Muck the Barn
The dominant theme of Biden’s presidency has become “clean up in aisle four.”
Given how common are the president’s gaffes, fumbles, and misstatements, adds Mr. Liston, “the White House might as well station a permanent clean-up crew there.”
So too with his unpopular policies, which have driven the vast majority of voters to tell pollsters the country is on the wrong track.
Biden and his party have earned that discontent, and his latest comments remind us why. Voters are likely to show their unhappiness at the ballot box on Tuesday.
Moreover, Biden’s comments remind Ohioans that electing Ryan will help Democrats keep a Senate majority and allow them to advance Biden’s agenda, including his opposition to fossil fuels.
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