julie, majority leader chuck schumer wanted a vote on build back better by christmas. that didn t happen. where do democrats and congress go from here? yeah. well, joe, after the initial shock and perhaps rage at senator manchin s sort of wore off in congress, majority leader schumer sat on a call tuesday night with all democrats in the senate that they will, in fact, vote on some sort of build back better agenda in the new year. he floated the idea of a rules change vote to pass voting rights legislation on a simple majority. something i should add that currently doesn t have the support of senator joe manchin and senator sinema who want to do that on a bipartisan basis. as i m on the air with you, a congressional progressive is holding a video call with activists saying they need to do something for the american people. failure is not an option. she said, and they re going to have to accept a really scaled back proposal. we know that senator joe manchin according to sources gave th
president sort of this menu of options he would support before he said his no. some of those things that manchin is open to include expanded obama care. that s the affordable care act. some billions for climate change and also ten years of universal pre-k. those are the things senator joe manchin said he was open to doing. one of his big sort of problems with the way this was going is that not all of these provisions were fully funded over the ten years and he s looking at something a lot smaller when they get back in january. julie, josh, thank you so you both for your reporting on this christmas eve day. up next, i m going to take an in ept look at what the collapse of build back better could mean for two key democratic priorities. climb change and immigration reform. ration reform how stiff clothes can feel rough on your skin? it s because they rub against you creating friction. and your clothes rub against you all day. for softer clothes that are gentle on your skin, try downy
sirken joining me now from charleston, west virginia on the ground for us there. mr. memoli, i ll start with you. the statement on sunday pulled no punches. our reporting indicates that the president signed off on that blistering statement before it was released. how are manchin s latest comments expected to go over there? yeah. i think it was so striking, the way the white house responded yet in that statement. i ve heard the president say this countless times before. i know you have as well. he says the way he operates in politics is you never question someone else s motivations. you can question their judgment but not motivations. he s talked about that as one reason he s had success working across the aisle throughout his time in the senate and now in the white house. that statement came awfully close, though, to questioning senator manchin s motivations. it talked about the fact that@invited manchin to his home. they had breakfast a few week
there is no legislation to vote yes or no on just yet. we were still waiting for the parliamentarian. there were weeks still before we would ven get to that point. so the question of why he chose this moment is one that they re still trying to answer more than anything at this point. well, to your point about biden saying manchin would be there in the end, it just may be that manchin decides when the end is. julie, you re in west virginia. joe manchin doing his local radio rounds this morning here. what more did we learn about what was behind his decision and what steps, if any, democrats might be able to take next? well, look, democrats certainly have gotten coal in their stockings for christmas, but i ve got to tell you senator joe manchin, we know from covering him every day, he s not going to be swayed by what other democrats are trying to pressure him to do. he keeps talking about his constituents at home. even today on the radio show, he said he s from west virginia. he s not
happen, quote, very early in the new year. so that every member of this body has the opportunity to make their position known on the senate floor, not just on television. okay. and over in the house, progressives are openly rebuking speaker pelosi s leadership team for allowing manchin to exert so much power over this process in the first place. things are an absolute mess within the democratic party right now in terms of the president s agenda. all of this as the white house braces for a record wave of covid cases and hospitalizations. with one of the administration s top doctors warning we could see up to a million new cases every day. it s a lot to talk about. let s bring in mike memoli outside the white house. julie sirken is in charleston, west virginia, and sahil kapour is on capitol hill. there was a lot of anger in the white house. we saw it in the first statement yesterday. what s the mood today?