MANCHIN: “I didn’t think it was appropriate at this time, and we had a talk about that. He felt charged up and — he and I had a good conversation.”
RAJU: “Why was it not appropriate?”
MANCHIN: “I just think that basically what we got to do is find the pathway forward to make sure that we de-weaponize — we have to de-weaponize. You can’t be playing politics, none of us can, on both sides, okay? And both sides have been very guilty of this. The frustration was built up. And I’m sure Chuck’s frustration was built, but that was not the way to take it out. We just disagreed. I would have done it differently.”
REPORTER: “We heard from a couple Republicans who said that that was a counterproductive speech. So are you worried — “
MANCHIN: “Both sides. I’m just saying — it’s just that civility is gone, okay, and I’m not going to be part of getting rid of that. I’ll try to bring it back and I’ll speak out when I see someone do something I don’t like.”
RAJU: “We heard you referred to this as an f-ing embarrassing speech.”
MANCHIN: “No, I never said that. That’s Jon. (Laughter) You’re confusing me with my good friend Jon Tester from Montana.”
RAJU: “Senator, in December this is going to be so much harder to do just because it’s a two-month — “
MANCHIN: “No, it’s not. We’re going to make it count.”
RAJU: “How are you going to do it? Because you are going to oppose still any change to the filibuster rule, right?”
MANCHIN: “Yeah, I’m not going to — we can’t go down — I think both of them know how critical this is. We can’t go down this path and we can’t play with the good faith — I mean the faith and the confidence of this whole beautiful country of ours if we [inaudible].”
RAJU: “So then how are you going to do it? I mean, you said go through reconciliation?”
MANCHIN: “I think that — I think that if we can get everybody together, calm down a little bit, get everybody together and understand that it’s best for both sides. You can fight about a lot of things, but you don’t throw this out. This is the most serious thing that we can do and we’re not going to do it anymore, and I said it. Remember I told you before, this was — we were not going to default. And we did not default. And we will not default and go through this again. We’ll work it out.”
RAJU: “Reconciliation? Should your party go through reconciliation to do this?”
MANCHIN: “That’s — I have a difference. I think that reconciliation would not have hurt us, but I understand that there’s a lot of people that don’t want to and — it’s just difference, it’s a difference of opinion on that. But the bottom line is, we shouldn’t have to go through reconciliation. We should both agree that this is too serious for any of us to get in trouble with and to play with.”