You’ve probably noticed this before, but Joe Biden’s a pretty nice guy. He rarely gets worked up. Even though he’s inherited a migraine — trying to right an America all but destroyed by his predecessor, who’s now threatening (albeit feebly) to take his old gig back — he’s kept his cool. Even when he called out two Democratic senators who haven’t made passing legislation in any way easy, he did so without naming names, even suggesting those on the other side of the aisle are still chums.
Those senators are, of course, Kyrsten Sinema, of Arizona, and Joe Manchin, of West Virginia. Over the last few months, the two have taken heat for not toeing the party line when the party needs them. They’re the two key figures standing in the way of killing the filibuster. They seem to think they can “implore” their Republican colleagues to do the right thing, despite all evidence to the contrary. They’re seen as stubborn and not helping fix a broken country.
On Tuesday, Biden finally called them out, sort of. While speaking at an event marking the 100th anniversary of the race massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he took some time to address why his administration hasn’t made more progress than it has already.
Biden indirectly put Sinema and Manchin on blast on national TV, and it was glorious. pic.twitter.com/YE1Lf3xgg2
— My Name is Sha as in Shea Butter.
(@Sha_Elise24) June 1, 2021
“I hear all the folks on TV saying, ‘Why doesn’t Biden get this done?’ Well, Biden only has a majority, effectively, of four votes in the House and a tie in the Senate, with two members of the Senate who vote more with my Republican friends,” Biden said. “But we’re not giving up.”
It wasn’t difficult to suss out that shade was being thrown at Sinema and Manchin. Will his words shame the senators into reforming their ways? Probably not. Sinema seems to delight in the hatred she’s inspired, which she seems to throw back the way it came.
Still, people were delighted to see them called out by the most powerful person the planet, on national television.
Congrats to Manchin and Sinema. This is your legacy. With democracy on the brink, you’ve chosen to kowtow to Republicans. https://t.co/M6VW10KKaZ
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) June 1, 2021
Biden calling out Manchin and Sinema for their nonsense is the summer hit that I hope gets a lot of radio play.
— Charlotte Clymer
(@cmclymer) June 1, 2021
biden called sinema out on her weird and upsetting vibes and frankly its time someone did
— elizabeth bruenig (@ebruenig) June 1, 2021
A very public calling out of Manchin and Sinema (even if he didn’t name them) by Biden https://t.co/rCkbWsktaD
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) June 1, 2021
Others continued making jokes about them effectively being appeasers to a party still in thrall to a possibly jail-bound blogger who lives in resorts with strangers.
If this were @Sen_JoeManchin or @SenatorSinema, they would have sacrificed the dogs in hopes that some sort of agreement with the bear might be reached. https://t.co/RKjoPMzNhQ
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) June 1, 2021
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