Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) ripped president Joe Biden for “offensive and disgusting” comments that the US will be “shutting down” the nation’s coal plants and not caring about the “pain” Americans suffer from energy costs.
Manchin calls Biden’s claim that US will shut down coal mines “offensive and disgusting”
West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin excoriated President Joe Biden over comments he made at a global communications company, saying that the US will be shutting down all of its coal plants.
“We’re going to be shutting these plants down all across America and having wind and solar,” Biden said in remarks at the corporate headquarters of Viasat, a global communications company, in Carlsbad, California.
The president was promoting the CHIPS and Science Act, which he signed into law in August to provide $50 billion in incentives to the domestic manufacturing of semiconductors, The Hill reported.
“President Biden’s comments are not only outrageous and divorced from reality, they ignore the severe economic pain the American people are feeling because of rising energy costs,” Manchin said in a statement, WVNews reported. “Comments like these are the reason the American people are losing trust in President Biden and instead believe he does not understand the need to have an all-in energy policy that would keep our nation totally energy independent and secure.”
“Let me be clear, this is something the President has never said to me,” Manchin continued. “Being cavalier about the loss of coal jobs for men and women in West Virginia and across the country who literally put their lives on the line to help build and power this country is offensive and disgusting.”
“It seems his [Biden’s] positions change depending on the audience and the politics of the day,” Manchin added. “Politicizing our nation’s energy policies would only bring higher prices and more pain for the American people.”
“The President owes these incredible workers an immediate and public apology and it is a time he learn a lesson that his words matter and have consequences,” Manchin concluded.
White House walks Biden’s comments back
Following Manchin’s response, the White House released a statement the following day saying Biden’s remarks had been “twisted to suggest a meaning that was not intended.”
“He regrets it if anyone hearing these remarks took offense,” the White House added.
West Virginia relies heavily on coal
Manchin is an advocate for coal. Approximately 11,000 residents in his home state of West Virginia work in the coal industry, NY Breaking reported.
