JOE MANCHIN DARES DEMOCRATS TO PUSH HIM OUT OF PARTY:

Senator Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) on Monday dared Democrats to push him out of the party if they are unhappy with his views, one day after he announced he will not support President Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda, effectively killing the bill.

Asked on Hoppy Kercheval’s West Virginia radio show if he believes there is still a place for him in the Democratic party, Manchin replied: “I would like to hope that Democrats feel like I do. I’m fiscally responsible and socially compassionate.”

“Now if there are no Democrats like that, they ought to push me where they want me,” he added.

During the interview, Manchin said he had gotten “to the wit’s end” with the negotiation efforts, saying the White House knows “the real reason” things fell apart.

White House staff “drove some things and they put some things out that were absolutely inexcusable. They know what it is,” he said.

Chuck Schumer played a role in Manchin’s disillusionment with his fellow Democrats:

Dems could have used the reconciliation process to raise the debt ceiling and keep the government funded. They didn’t need a single Republican vote to do it, but that process would’ve been lengthy and difficult, and they might have had their own party members (looking at you, AOC) with stupid, last-minute items that would’ve embarrassed the party by revealing the truly radical nature of their power base.

So, McConnell gave in and did Schumer a favor.

Remember how Schumer thanked him? By laying into him with a diatribe on the floor of the Senate.

Remember how Manchin reacted? Watch:

[Click over for video — Ed]

“This is crazy,” you can see Manchin mouth to an unseen colleague. He then buries his head in his hands in frustration and despair before he gets up and storms out of the chamber while Schumer continues his rant.

You want a picture of incivility? That’s the freaking Mona Lisa right there. And it pretty much set the table for Manchin from that day forward, culminating in his proclamation to Brett Baier on Sunday. Manchin knows that there’s no way forward with these people. And the old, trusted allies he fooled himself into thinking he had (Schumer and Biden) are long gone.

That speech from Schumer may have made the New York Democrat feel great. Must’ve been real cathartic for him. And the lefties on Twitter absolutely loved it as well. “Slay Queen!” they tweeted in all CAPS!

Good for Chuck!

He owned the cons for a night and alienated the one guy he needed to accommodate, thus ensuring his status as a failed Senate leader.

He also solidified the death knell for his president’s last chance to get anything done before Republicans take over the House and the Senate in eleven months.

This could mean that the Biden presidency, in terms of any real legislative achievements that would matter to a Democrat, is over. And Chuck Schumer ended it.

Meanwhile, Hollywood drops the mask, and lets Manchin, and in one actress’s case, West Virginia have it with both barrels (figuratively speaking, not Alec Baldwin-style): ‘This is how the elite feel about normal Americans’: Bette Midler, 76, draws the ire of conservatives and liberals after branding people in West Virginia ‘poor, illiterate and strung out’ during attack on Manchin:

Bette Midler has come under fire from both conservatives and liberals after she tweeted that Senator Joe Manchin ‘wants us all to be just like his state, West Virginia…poor, illiterate, and strung out.’

The First Wives Club actress infuriated thousands with her snobbish missive, which said: ‘What #JoeManchin, who represents a population smaller than Brooklyn, has done to the rest of America, who wants to move forward, not backward, like his state, is horrible.

‘He sold us out.

‘He wants us all to be just like his state, West Virginia.

‘Poor, illiterate and strung out.’

Criticism for Midler’s high-handed comments quickly poured in from both conservatives and liberals.

Mike Schlossberg, a Democratic state legislator from Pennsylvania, criticized Midler, tweeting: ‘Respectfully: This isn’t helping. “I AM SMARTER THAN YOU SO AGREE WITH ME” has never convinced anyone. Ever.’

Another Twitter user wrote to Midler: ‘You suck as a person.’

Rob Reiner, Jennifer Rubin, Bill de Blasio and Unitarian pastor and author John Pavlovitz joined in the Twitter scrum, though they at least had the sense to attack Manchin himself, and not the people who elected him.