With their own reelection races looming, it was probably only a matter of time before friction between the party and both Manchin and Sinema reared its head.
Manchin and Sinema back to bedeviling Democrats
The West Virginian is flirting with a third-party presidential bid and rejecting Biden nominees. And the Arizonan is drawing the ire of Democrats, too.
The on-again, off-again standoff between two famous Senate centrists and the Democratic coalition is back on.
Take it from Bernie Sanders, who is watching in real time as Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema sink Sanders’ preferred pick for labor secretary. The progressive Vermonter called for liberal primary challenges to both senators last year but has taken a more hands-off approach to Sinema and Manchin in recent months.
Sanders (I-Vt.) is done dancing around his two colleagues: “You have two corporate Democrats who receive a lot of money from the corporate world who do not want an advocate who is going to stand up for workers … it’s disappointing, I think it’s sad,” Sanders said of Manchin and Sinema in an interview. (Sinema left the Democratic Party last year.)
Manchin (D-W.Va.) opposes confirming Julie Su to lead President Joe Biden’s Labor Department, while Sinema (I-Ariz.) is staying quiet but viewed by the White House as balking. Taken together, the centrists have effectively sidelined Su’s nomination — the latest and most vivid flashpoint between Democrats and the duo, but far from the only one.
Manchin is flirting with a third-party presidential bid that many Democrats fear could derail Biden’s reelection, while savaging the administration’s environmental policies and routinely voting against Biden’s nominees. Sinema is drawing the ire of Democrats who are warning against her bipartisan bid to alter pilot training requirements. It’s a reminder of past progressive angst over her positions on taxes, the minimum wage and the filibuster.
Most of the Democratic caucus is trying to work with the two as they can without public disputes, but Sanders is willing to go there yet again on challenges to his colleagues: “Would I rather see more progressive leadership coming from West Virginia and Arizona? Yes...”
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