Joe Manchin is a no vote on Build Back Better Bill

Joe Manchin just killed Joe Biden's Build Back Better Bill this morning. Perhaps the drama had dragged on too long for Sen. Manchin. Perhaps, he just got tired of reporters hounding him wherever he went. Whatever it was that pushed him to this point, that point has been reached.

For all intents and purposes, Joe Biden is now a lame duck president. Though it's likely that Democrats will pass a stripped-down version of BBB, that's a far cry of the transformative, historic accomplishments that Biden was pushing for. Here's the video of Sen. Manchin's exclusive interview with Bret Baier:

Here's the transcript of the news-making portion of the interview:
BAIER: Senator, you are at the center of this negotiation with the president over his social spending and tax bill, a bill, the Build Back Better bill, that is not coming up in the Senate before the New Year in part largely because of your reservations. Without you, the leadership doesn't have the votes it needs. So, today, right now, what's the state of play. 
MANCHIN: Well, Bret, you know, this is a mammoth piece of legislation and I have had my reservations from the beginning when they heard about it a five and half months ago and I've been working diligently every day, every minute of every day, I've been working on this, meeting with -- whether it'd be the president, President Biden, whether it'd be Majority Leader Schumer and his staff, whether it would be with Nancy Pelosi, all of my colleagues. I mean, from all different spectrums of the political spectrum, if you will, from the right to the left. I've done everything humanly possible. 
And you know, my concerns I had, and I still have these concerns and where I'm at right now, the inflation that I was concerned about, it's not transitory, it's real, it's harming every West Virginian. It's making it almost difficult for them to continue, to go to their jobs, the cost of gasoline, the cost of groceries, the cost of utility bills -- all of these things are hitting in every aspect of their life. 
And you start looking at -- then you have the debt that we're carrying, $29 trillion, you have also the geopolitical unrest that we have. You have the COVID -- the COVID variant, and that is wreaking havoc again, people are concerned. I've been with my family, I know everyone is concerned. 
So when you have these things coming at you the way they are right now, I've always said this, Bret, if I can't go home and explain it to the people of West Virginia, I can't vote for it. And I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. I just can't. I've tried everything humanly possible. I can't get there.
BAIER: You're done? This is -- is this a no? 
MANCHIN: This is a no on this legislation. I have tried everything I know to do, and the president has worked diligently. He's been wonderful to work with. He knows I've had concerns and the problems I've had. 
And, you know, the thing we should all be is directing our attention towards the variant, the COVID that we have coming back at us in so many different aspects in different ways, it's affecting our lives again. We have inflation that basically could harm -- really harm a lot of Americans and especially those who are most needy and having a hard time struggling right now. So I think that's where attention needs to be directed towards immediately.

Predictably, progressives are upset:

"Let’s be clear: Manchin’s excuse is bull----," Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., tweeted. "The people of West Virginia would directly benefit from childcare, pre-Medicare expansion, and long term care, just like Minnesotans. This is exactly what we warned would happen if we separated Build Back Better from infrastructure."
I didn't see that coming -- not. That's as predictable as this: Getting criticized by a socialist in West Virginia isn't exactly threatening. Sen. Manchin won't lose a split-second of sleep over it. Mondaire Jones chimed in, too:
"Manchin is a tour de force in gaslighting and dishonesty," tweeted Rep. Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y. "’We’ve got COVID’ — but Manchin just voted with Republicans to overturn Biden’s employer vaccine and testing requirements. ‘We’ve got inflation’ — but Build Back Better would cut costs for millions of working families."
TRANSLATION:BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. YADA, YADA, YADA. During the Biden administration, that whining plus 5 dollars is worth $3.00. Pelosi should tell these whiny little crybabies to sit down and shut up. They're annoying.

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