Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia stated on Thursday that he considered leaving the Democratic Party and caucusing with Democrats as an independent if his centrist views become an "embarrassment." His Democratic colleagues, on the other hand, were uninterested in his offer.
According to another report, Manchin and Bernie Sanders fought behind closed doors in the Capitol on Thursday. Manchin raised his fist to warn his liberal colleague he could live without any of President Joe Biden's social spending proposals.
The incident, which occurred Wednesday in the Capitol building during a luncheon for Democratic committee chairmen, was due to a disagreement of opinion, Democratic Senator Jon Tester of Montana told Axios.
Joe Manchin was offered to leave the Democratic Party
The moderate centrist informed associates he planned to leave the party if the budget reconciliation package discussions did not go his way. He wants the social expenditure package's cost reduced from $3.5 trillion to $1.75 trillion.
"If I'm an embarrassment to my Democrat colleagues, my caucus, the president being the leader of the Democratic Party," Manchin told reporters on Thursday, he might consider becoming an Independent, Daily Mail reported.
If Manchin follows through on his proposal, he will leave the Democratic Party and become an Independent. According to reports, the senator has a two-part departure strategy. First, he would write to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, requesting that he be removed from the leadership of the Senate Democrats' policy and communications committee, which he now leads.
"I'm comfortable with zero," making a "zero" with his thumb and index finger, Manchin said to Sanders. According to Tester, it means Manchin, a moderate Democrat from West Virginia, can live without any of Biden's proposed spending cuts.
Manchin says he'll wait to see whether it signals to Democrats that he's serious about departing if talks don't go his way. He'd then switch his voting registration from Republican to Democrat after approximately a week.
Exchange between Manchin and Sanders gets tense
Manchin and Sanders, who are on different sides of the Democratic Party, have met in secret to figure out a topline figure for Biden's trillion-dollar social welfare spending proposal. Manchin is advocating for a budget of about $1.5 trillion, while Sanders is asking for a budget of $3.5 trillion.
The brawls suggest that tensions are rising as moderates and progressives near Biden's deadline to strike an agreement at the end of the week.
Throughout the week, the two men had met and argued. On Monday, they posed for the cameras, following another squabble over the budget.
During a Democratic senators' meeting on Monday afternoon, Manchin said he could support the plan's provision for free pre-kindergarten but not for free community college.
Senator Joe Manchin said he doesn't believe Democrats will achieve an agreement on a reconciliation framework by Friday, the target set by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer just a few days ago. The reconciliation bill, a core of President Joe Biden's Build Back Better domestic program to extend the social safety net and combat climate change, has been in the works for weeks.
Democrats will be able to pass the bill without the help of Republicans due to the legislative procedure. They can't afford to lose any support from their caucus in the Senate's evenly divided chamber, including Manchin's and Kyrsten Sinema's. After a "spirited discussion" with members on Tuesday, Schumer expressed optimism that a compromise might be struck as soon as this week, as per Newsweek via MSN.
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