On Saturday, President Biden argued that his $3.5 trillion agenda was being blocked by Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) by creating divisions within the far left.
“We can bring the moderates and progressives together very easy if we had two more votes,” Biden told reporters Saturday. “Two. Two people.”
The blame is shifted by Biden to the senators, suggesting it will only fuel the growing leftist protests against them.
Living United for Change in Arizona activists followed Sinema into the restroom while they demanded amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Manchin was confronted by leftist activists in kayaks while at his houseboat last week in Washington D.C. for blocking Biden’s agenda.
Despite Biden’s attempt to pass his $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill and his $3.5 trillion entitlement enrichment bill, White House officials, particularly chief of staff Ron Klain, were privately telling leftists behind the scenes to hold fast by demanding both bills pass in tandem.
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Speaker of the House, canceled the scheduled vote for Biden’s infrastructure bill on Friday after it was apparent the leftists would not support it.
Sinema, who led the process in successfully pushing the infrastructure bill through the Senate, criticized Democrat leaders in a statement calling the canceled vote “deeply disappointing.”
She wrote:
Over the course of this year, Democratic leaders have made conflicting promises that could not all be kept — and have, at times, pretended that the differences of opinion within our party did not existed, even when those disagreements were repeatedly made clear directly and publicly.
She asserted the canceled vote “further erodes” trust between Americans and Democrats.
Biden will travel to Michigan on Tuesday to promote his stalled twin legislative priorities.
On Saturday, he argued he was still in control of the progress, telling reporters, “I think we can get them both done.”
“I know how legislation gets done,” he said. “There is no reason why both these bills couldn’t pass independently except that there are not the votes to do it that way. It’s a simple proposition.