Ayanna Pressley: Manchin Has ‘Contempt’ for the American People

Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) had “contempt” for the American people after Manchin announced he would not vote for President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better Act.

Pressley said, “He’s never negotiated in good faith and obstructing the president’s agenda, 85% of which is still left on the table. In obstructing the president’s agenda, he’s obstructing the people’s agenda. I was listening to his interview earlier today, and he said it’s a mammoth bill. You’re right. It’s a mammoth bill to address mammoth hurt to lower the cost of elder care, childcare, prescription drug cost, the child tax credit, which is so critical in combating child poverty. West Virginia, I believe, is seventh in the country when it comes to child poverty. So by not advancing the Build Back Better Act, not only do we fail to meet the needs of the American people, their mammoth hurt in this pandemic and pandemic-induced recession. Not only that, but we’re going to put in his district, in his state, 50,000 more children at risk of going back into poverty by not advancing the Build Back Better Act because the child tax credit is in that and expired Friday.”

She added, “All I want for Christmas is a senator that has compassion for the American people and not contempt.”

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