life. i do not question her bona f fid fideness. joe manchin is not the leader of the senate. when the president said, can you get this done? chuck schumer knew because of that letter that he is supposed to say no, representative porter. i can t get joe manchin. let s not go forward on this. we have to figure out another way in house. let s not go out $3.5 trillion, because i can t get it done. he sent me a letter. can t you blame him? well, look, i don t think we re going to advance any accomplishments for the american people with blame, but by negotiating and coming to the table. but it s how you learn a lesson. it s how you learn the lesson of why this has been stalled so long. that would be my point. back to you. well, look, it hasn t been stalled a long time. is that frustrating? yes. believe you me, we are frustrated. but the reality is, we have the
support donald trump and we re off to the raises of ending democracy. so act like democracy is at stake and that will change how you feel about whether or not it s $1.8 trillion or $1.6. because ultimately 20 years from now, that won t be remembered. whether or not we lost democracy will. governor, last word to you about whether or not you believe that the hill to die on is securing a democracy, specifically the right to vote. yeah, i think it s very important. i think they have a reasonable bill that joe manchin helped put together and they ought to move on that. but frankly, chris, to me, the number one thing democrats should do is pass the infrastructure bill. republicans support it in the senate. put it in the house, up or down, for it or against it. if you re the president of the united states, you will be a winner, whether you win that vote or not, you will be a winner. people want it, everybody in
party. why air your incongruence openly to expose manchin as the problem, right? but who loses? the democrats do, because it is still democrat dysfunction. pushback over masks, mandates, bias, policing. these are all symptoms of this growing idea that government doesn t help. can t help. can t help but mess with people. this is the existential threat to democrats. now, perversely, and they re not in a good position, but they re not in a good position for a good reason. hear me out. perversely, one political party is about feeding fears that government cannot do anything. so it is on the democrats to show it can. that s the harder prt er part o
equation. as my father used to say, any jack ass can kick down a barn. it takes a good man or woman to build one. so the eas here s the problemr the democrats. they re fighting the good fight. that s not me saying so. they said so. that was their pledge. and for months now, while promising that we ll show you government can work to end the chaos, they ve demonstrated that the core of their pledge is a false premise. and if government is not getting things done that help, it is only seen as that which hurts. and senator manchin said that out loud today. you want to know what s wrong with the place? i go to work in a hostile working environment every day. if you re a democrat and a republican is up for re-election, these are people