Joe Manchin Tells CNN ‘Political Posturing’ of Border Policy Senate Vote ‘Reaffirms’ Why He’s Not Running for Reelection | Video

Sen. Joe Manchin spoke to CNN’s Jake Tapper Wednesday night about the $118 billion bipartisan border security bill that was blocked by Senate Republicans on Tuesday. Manchin said the blockage “reaffirms why I did not run for reelection, because I have come to the conclusion we’re not going to fix the political posturing in Washington here in Congress from Washington.”

“It’ll be fixed from outside of Washington,” Manchin continued. “This is absolutely unheard of, what you saw happen, and a reversal of absolute proportion we’ve never seen before. Eighteen thousand border patrol agents have all said this would be the best bill they’ve ever seen in at least the last two decades or more.”

“It’ll control the border. It stops catch and release. It’s changing the interpretation and definition of asylum. It holds people, it doesn’t put anybody back in our country,” Manchine continued.

“It puts 1,800 new agents out and 1,500 new I.C.E. agents out in the country to make sure that we adjudicate as quickly as possible people who have been let go to make sure whether they deserve to be here or not. All these things everybody’s talked about forever.”

Manchin added, “Now, they’re blaming the Biden administration. They have a right to. The Biden administration from day one I’ve disagreed with on the border. But when you have a chance to change, and everyone come to an agreement, with President Biden and everyone else agreeing that this bill will give us the tools to secure our border and politics raises its ugly head, absolutely it’s from the bowels of wherever to say, ‘Nope, I’m sorry. That’s not gonna be good for my politics.'”

“Well, I’m sorry to all my friends and colleagues. This is for America. This is good for our country. Start putting your country before yourself,” he concluded.

On Tuesday, Tapper tore into Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales over the failure of the bill. He said, “The fact that this bill is failing is not the fault of Democrats. The fact that this bill is failing is the fault of Republicans. That’s just obvious to anybody covering it.”

“And it is the most conservative immigration bill, or border bill, that I’ve seen in this town in 25 years of covering this issue,” Tapper added.

Trump allies decried the bill after the apparent GOP presidential candidate described it as a “bad deal.” But Gonzales told Tapper that there are Democrats against the bill too. He said, “It isn’t just Republicans, and yes, they are a lot of people that don’t want to see any change occur, that want the status to keep going.”

Watch the interview with Sen. Manchin in the video above.

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