Manchin reveals whether he'd support a second infrastructure bill, responds to calls to join GOP

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin III said Thursday he cannot support any infrastructure bill subsequent to the narrow bipartisan plan forged with the White House last week if it has a bloated price tag north of $4 trillion.

Manchin, one of few remaining moderates in the Senate majority, suggested to Bret Baier on "Special Report" that he supports a so-called "human infrastructure" plan to follow the traditional infrastructure – roads, bridges, broadband – bill, but maintained that he will not further fuel the national debt to get it passed.

Last week, Republicans including Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Susan Collins of Maine joined Democrats like Manchin, Mark R. Warner of Virginia, and Jon Tester of Montana in agreeing to a traditional infrastructure plan. However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has said the bill will not get a vote unless a currently $6 trillion plan from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is approved first.

"I understand we will probably have to go to reconciliation because I did not vote for this 2017 tax bill that President Trump put forward," Manchin told Baier when asked about his support for the reconciliation process. 

"I had worked for a long time in a bipartisan way with my Republican colleagues and friends and Democrats and we thought we had a good bipartisan bill for tax overhaul. But at the end they wanted reconciliation, and no Democrats were there, and I thought it was weighted too much to the high-end earners, if you will… With that, I'm agreeable to making adjustments to the tax code, which I think will be fair and competitive."

Baier followed up by asking specifically what Manchin would support and what he would not, offering a figure of $4 to 6 trillion as proposed by Sanders.

"I don't think I could ever get there for that," replied Manchin "Not unless we just throw caution to the wind on the tax code and care less. Are we competing in a global market and are we being fair that you just throw that out the window? That seems to me totally out of the ballpark."

Manchin also doubled down on his support for the filibuster rule as-is – which required 60 votes for most legislation to pass the Senate. The former West Virginia governor added that he also does not support shrinking the threshold to 55 or another figure.

"We need to change the attitudes of people, and we should be working together. If the Democrats were in the minority and the Republicans in the majority, we should be able to find at least 10 reasonable [lawmakers] … to get to 60," he said.

"The filibuster is there so that the minority has input. I've been in the minority and I've been in the majority and I can tell you, when you're in the minority, you like to have input."

Manchin reiterated that the Senate is intended to be a deliberative body that cools oft-partisan House bills that are "hot as a firecracker."

Without the filibuster, he said, bills will "come in hot and go out hot."

He also responded to questions about his political affiliation as a lifelong Democrat in a party that often has at least a faction of members upset or criticizing him for being more moderate in his behavior.

Baier told Manchin he has heard from Republicans personally who wonder about the West Virginian's chances of changing parties, especially given the rancor he receives at times.

Republicans that have called for Manchin to change parties include former Trump strategist Stephen Bannon, who called on Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., to build a "major effort" to "bring Joe Manchin into the Republican Party right now."

"[M]ake sure that he's a welcome member of the Republican Party," Bannon said, according to Newsweek.

If Manchin were to change parties in a 50-50 senate, he would erase Vice President Kamala Harris' ability to break ties in at least party-line votes, and send Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., back into the majority leadership.

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Manchin, however, told Baier he is confidently staying put, saying that if a party change changes who a person is, "you are in the wrong profession."

"I've never considered that. I believe in the Democratic principles that I grew up with and how I was raised and I believe the respect every one of my Republican friends [has] because they have a commitment and I respect that," he said.

Baier, however, noted that every one of the Mountain State's 55 counties was won by Donald Trump in 2020 – with Biden's best showing being barely short of 50% in Monongalia, which includes the college town of Morgantown.

"I'm here because of West Virginia. I'm here because of every person in West Virginia. I love my state as much as anything in the world," Manchin replied.

He told Baier that while some elements of his party may have changed, he has not and that West Virginians recognize that when they indeed reelect him despite voting more Republican than historically otherwise in recent times.

"I know them. They don't know me as Joe the Democrat, they know me as Joe," Manchin said.