Erin Burnett Outfront: Interview With Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV)
Interview
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Hi, Pamela. How are you?
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Well, we had a respectful meeting. We just finished up our meeting. It's very respectful.
It's a good meeting and I have a lot of work to do here. And that's what I will do, to make my final decision, but I haven't made that yet.
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No.
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We're not going to default. I truly believe that, with all my heart that we will not default. We know how detrimental that would be, how many average Americans would be hurt so bad by us defaulting because of a political toxic atmosphere that we're in, and just not able to do our job. That's not part of it.
But to say you're not going to negotiate when this representative form of democracy we have is all about negotiating, where the United States Senate is the most deliberative body in the world, how can you be a deliberative body if you're not deliberating and talking?
So, it's just who we are, and I think the president knows that as well as anybody else. He's been in this Senate for many, many years. And he has negotiated many pieces of legislation, including the debt ceiling.
So, let's just hope for this -- they're going to be together pretty soon, next week or so. And maybe we'll see that the grown-ups in the room do what needs to be done for our country and put politics aside. I hope so, because I think you can't sustain a runaway debt that we have, you should be looking at how we accumulated so much debt so quickly and find out that we don't continue making that mistake, without hurting anybody.
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I hope. I'm very hopeful for that. I asked about 90 days ago, and they had their first meeting. And now, it's time to be serious about having not only a meeting, but negotiating, and putting what's on the table.
How do you know? I mean, there's -- you know, we're not talking about taking a meat cleaver and slicing things, but, you know, we've had more spending in the last 10 years and in the last 20 years, Pam, we've accumulated more debt than every time -- than any time before.
For the past 21 years, we have spent more money than we've brought in. You can't run your household that way. You can't run your private life, you can't run any business, small or large, that way.
How can we continue to sustain accumulating all this debt? And who's going to pay the real price? Look around at your children and grandchildren.
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I'm not involved in any politics right now, my own or anybody else's. I won't be for this entire year. What we just talked about --
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I'm not -- I'm not involved in any types of politics, nor will I say what. I'm doing my job and I think everyone else should do the same.
We have an awful lot of work. We shouldn't be facing this theatrical debt ceiling. We shouldn't be looking at how we do our job.
We've got permitting coming up, that we can't do and meet the needs and challenges we have in our country, unless we're facing and fixing the permitting process of America. So, I'm functioned on that.
As soon as you say, you're doing this, you support this, or whoever, everything comes at you with such a way that you can't even functionally do your job the way you should. And my job is the most important thing for the people of West Virginia right now.
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I'm not -- I'm not putting any support anywhere. I'm not talking about anybody's election. I'm not involved in anybody's election, nor will I be, including my own until I finish my job, at least at the end of this year.
Only in America, Pamela, do you start the next election the day after the last election. We've got a long time. Think about it, we have a year and a half to go. Give us -- let us do what we need to do right now.
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Sure.
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Pam, not at all. Really hasn't looked -- I'm looking at -- I was a governor and I enjoyed such high ratings from everybody, Republicans, independents, and Democrats, okay?
Your governor is a complete different position than anything on a national level. Once you get to the national level, they're thinking, okay, who's going to control this, who's going to control that. They know nobody controls me. I'm the same independent I was when I was in Charleston. When I've been in state legislature, I vote what I think is best for my constituents, and I said, if I can go and home and explain it, I can vote for it. If I can't explain, I don't vote for it, simple as that.
So, no Democrat or Republican's going to tell me how to vote. Now, with that, there's going to be -- you got Congressman Mooney running, and you have Jim Justice, so far, the announced candidates running for the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate. That's going to be a tremendous entertaining show to watch here. So, let's enjoy it.
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If I get into an election, whatever I get into, I'm -- I'm going to win. I'm not going to lose. I've only lost one of my life in 1996. I've been in many since 1980. And that's not -- that's not in my -- you know, the state, basically, has turned (ph), as you know, you noted that.
I won in the most unpredictable terms. I don't think anyone's ever won in a condition like I have. People know me as being basically all about my state and my constituents, and my country. And I'm going to fulfill that before I'm going to be a Democrat or a Republican.
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Well, I was -- my bill is the only one that truly has bipartisan support. It was a far-reaching. It got into politics last year, you know, and now, we have Republicans eager to come to the table again. That's exciting, let's do it.
Now, let's sit down and start again. We have a piece of legislation, which I wrote and introduced last year, that got 47 votes. We got seven Republicans and 40 Democrats. That ought to be a heck of a good starting point for us to get something across the line with 60 votes.
Without permitting, in the United States of America, it takes to five to 10 years to get any project into basically reality or it's going to be built. The rest of the developing world takes about three years or less.
So, I'll give you a perfect example, if somebody wants to build a windmill out in the Gulf of Mexico somewhere, if they started today, it would probably take them eight years just to do without any permitting. You put permitting on top of that, you could be anywhere from 18 years or longer.
That's ridiculous. You can't do that. We need pipelines, we need fossil fuel. Everyone's playing the game, which side are you on? You have to have energy security, and you have to be energy independent if you want to be the superpower of the world. And we can extract the gas and oil and the coal and do it better and cleaner than anywhere else in the world, and replace the dirty fuels that come from Russia or Venezuela or keeping -- preventing Iran from getting back into the market where they are the greatest terrorist supporter to do more harm to humankind.
So, we have a piece of legislation that was all part of the permitting to bring it to fruition. The Inflation Reduction Act has brought more job opportunities, more manufacturing back to America, and we've got to make sure that the administration does what the bill says it does, and they shouldn't try to pass a piece of legislation and basically that they couldn't pass, and then write some rules thinking they can sneak that in.
So, we're making them stay honest. We're going to keep them on track to stay honest. And we're going to get permitting done to make sure that we can build the pipelines, the transmission lines, everything we need to deliver the energy this country must have.
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Yeah.
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Right.
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I'm -- I'm extremely proud to be an American. That's what it's all about, Pamela.
You know, if a party identification drives you as a human being, maybe you're in the wrong business. If you're in politics, if you want to do the right thing, party identification shouldn't mean anything.
My grandfather was a Democrat, probably because FDR gave him a chance to save himself and the family. Okay? It doesn't mean anything.
I've been a very -- I tell people, I'm fiscally responsible, and socially compassionate. You put me anywhere you want. I think I fit in all categories.
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Thank you. Appreciate it.
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