Vice President Kamala Harris said Monday that she has no “personal feelings” about Sen. Joe Manchin III killing the administration’s $1.75 trillion social welfare bill.
In an interview with CBS News’ Margaret Brennan, Ms. Harris said “the stakes are too high for this to be in any way about any specific individual.”
“I don’t have any personal feelings about this,” the vice president said. “This is about let’s get the job done.”
Ms. Harris vowed that the White House won’t give up on passing the centerpiece of its domestic agenda.
Mr. Manchin, West Virginia Democrat, announced Sunday that he couldn’t support the massive spending bill, effectively killing it in the evenly divided Senate. In an unusually blunt statement, the White House accused Mr. Manchin of a reversal of his commitment to the package.
But Ms. Harris said, “I refuse to get caught up in what might be personal politics.”
Asked how to salvage a child tax credit that will expire next month without Mr. Manchin’s support, the vice president said, “You don’t give up. That’s how we do it. We don’t give up. That’s how.”
Extending the child tax credit, which paid $300 per child to most American families every month during the pandemic, has become a top priority for Democrats and a major feature in Mr. Biden’s $1.75 trillion social welfare and climate bill.
Ms. Harris also said that she and Mr. Biden joke about her role as the tie-breaking vote in the Senate.
“When I leave one of our meetings to go break a tie, he says, ‘Well, that’s gonna be a winning vote,’” Ms. Harris said. “Whenever I vote, we win. It’s a joke we have.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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