the fact of the matter is it was no surprise that these negotiations were in trouble, perhaps the only surprise was the timing because the white house said in this statement that manchin had actually brought his own proposal directly to the president, and they were expecting to work their way through that when he abruptly pulled the plug on national television, and our reporting is that about 30 to 40 minutes before he went on tv, he actually sent one of his aides to deliver the message to the white house that he was going to make this announcement. the white house, in turn, tries to reach out to him, and manchin, they say, wouldn t take the call. so, there were clearly feelings that there was something else to negotiate. now, a little bit of that statement just to give you a flavor of it. senator manchin s comments this morning on fox are at odds with discussions this week with the president with white house staff and with his own public utterances. weeks ago senator manchin
i went and spoke to the leader schumer at that time and explained to him where i was and the concerns i had, and at $1.5 trillion was the most we could do if we did it and basically took care of the things we thought were the highest priorities. if you re going to do it, pick the prized priorities, like most people do in their families or businesses, and you fund them for ten years and make sure they deliver the services for ten years. it s hard to deliver service for one year or three years or five years and how are we going to continue them? unless it s going to put a burden, unless you have to go back and make adjustments. but we should be up front and pick our priorities. and alex, just in the last few seconds, as we have been on air, we have a new statement from white house spokeswoman jen psaki responding fairly critical to this latest move from senator joe manchin. psaki saying manchin s comments this morning on fox are at odds with his discussions this week with the president
for the white house insists it s not done trying to fight for the social and climate agenda. the white house was signed to start fresh in negotiations come generate the belief was to come back fresh after the holiday but in a blistering statement out within the last hour at the administration is ready to pile on the pressure against manchin. it is a long statement but there are some key parts let me read them tapered first part senator manchin, this morning on fox are at odds with the discussions this week with the president, with the white house staff, and with his own public utterances. press secretary psaki goes on to say just a senator manchin reversed his position on build back better this morning, we will continue to press him to see if he were reversed his position yet again to honor his prior commitment and be true to his word. of course a lot of people are going to wonder was this the way to wind manchin over? there are 70 progressive lawmakers and say the white house was al
i have tried possible i cannot get there. you are done. this is a no? this is a no. up until this weekend the white house made it seem like it was likely they could reach a deal was senator manchin now it s hard to believe that but the gloves have come off. the white house is ready to fight him publicly in a statement released today by the press secretary jen psaki right senator manchin s comments this morning at fox are at odds with his discussions this week with the president, white house staff and his own public. just as the senator reversed his position on build back better this morning, we will continue to press to see if he will reverse his position again to honor his prior commitment to be true to his word. we have heard from my house staff but not yet from the president on camera. he held no public events today. he goes back to dc tomorrow.
and i cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. i just can t. i tried everything humanly possible. i can t get there. the white house says it was blindsided. press secretary jen psaki releasing a statement sharply criticizing manchin saying, 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 subsequently announced. senator manchin pledged repeatedly to negotiate in good faith. congresswoman cori bush, one of six house progressives who voted no on infrastructure despite assurances from biden that he would get all senators on board for build back better, says she s not surprised at manchin s decision. so when i think about this no, this was a no all along.