(EXCERPT)
“The White House called Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin after Vice President Kamala Harris conducted interviews with West Virginia media, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation.
The outreach comes after Harris’ apparent move to apply pressure on Manchin frustrated the conservative Democrat, something that he made clear over the weekend.
Harris attempted to apply came in the form of an exclusive interview she granted to WSAZ TV in Huntington, WV. Curiously, I have been unable to locate a video clip on Rumble or YouTube or Twitter. Even WSAZ’s own website is not making available what has to be one of the most newsworthy broadcast moments in the station’s history.
In the interview, Harris tried to pressure the popular former governor by speaking directly to his own constituents:
About the economic situation of the West Virginia coal industry.
“All of those skilled workers who are in the coal industry and transferring those skills to what we need to do in terms of dealing with reclaiming ABANDONED LAND MINES; what we need to do around plugging leaks from oil and gas wells; and, transferring those important skills to the work that has yet to be done that needs to get done,” she said.
I am fairly certain Harris did not mean what she literally said: that unemployed coal miners ought to hunt for unexploded land mines, one of the most horrifically dangerous occupations imaginable (and a favorite cause of Princess Di). She probably meant reclaiming old coal mines by decontamination and planting of ground cover over the sites where people used to earn a good living. But such is her arrogance that she has not admitted that she misspoke.
Manchin publicly complained on the same West Virginia TV station about not being consulted before being, in essence, shamed before his electorate:
“I saw [the interview], I couldn’t believe it. No one called me [about it],” Manchin said. “We’re going to try to find a bipartisan pathway forward, but we need to work together. That’s not a way of working together.”