Former Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.V., wanted Republicans to win the Senate in 2024 to halt Democrats from getting rid of the Senate filibuster. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
He recalled that vote in his book and the pressure he felt from Schumer and Senate Democrats to fall in line on that and other key votes during Biden’s presidency.
Manchin accused Schumer of wanting a vote he "could broadcast to the radical left to prove his loyalty" and said the then-Senate majority leader didn’t actually believe that getting rid of the filibuster was the right thing to do, but rather to fulfill his "only priority" of maintaining control of the Senate.
"Because of what I knew — and what I had seen firsthand — I wanted Republicans to win the Senate majority in 2024," Manchin wrote. "I believed it was the only hope for preserving the Senate as an institution. I truly believed that, if in power, Republicans would uphold the filibuster, the last guardrail preventing total partisan rule."
Former President Joe Biden speaks to the National Action Network Convention on April 12, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
"As the drama began, I got a call from the president, and was he hot," Manchin wrote. "'If you kill this f— bill, I will never speak to you again,’ he promised. Anyone who knows Joe Biden — and I have known him for a very long time —knows he’s got a very bad temper. He calls it his ‘Irish.’ I call it unfortunate. But if he was going there, so was I."
"'Your actions are reckless,' I spat back. ‘You’re sending a f— check to everyone. And if you missed anyone, it was only by mistake.’"
The legislation ultimately passed after a compromise was reached, but Manchin noted that he later regretted "capitulating on the American Rescue Plan."
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He also described having a far better relationship with Trump, who he considered a fellow "outsider," than Obama, and noted that Obama reached out to him twice during his entire presidency: once after he won reelection to the Senate in 2012 and again in 2015 to persuade him from voting against his nuclear deal with Iran.
"From the start, President Trump had an open line of communication with me. I spoke to him more in the first two years of his presidency than I did to President Obama during all eight years of his time in office," Manchin said.
Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of Schumer, Obama and Biden for comment but did not immediately hear back.
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/manchin-says-he-wanted-gop-win-senate-stop-democrats-quest-raw-political-power