I'm not blaming anybody. I knew where they were and I knew what they could and could not do. They just never realized it because they figured

surely the God we can move one person, surely we can badger and beat one person up, surely we can get enough protesters to make that person uncomfortable enough.

They'll just say, okay, I'll vote for anything. Just quit. Well, guess what? I'm from West Virginia. I'm not from where they're from and they can just beat the living crap out of people and think they'll be submissive. Period.

That was Senator Joe Manchin on a West Virginia radio show Monday pushing back at the furious attacks on him from the White House and his fellow Democrats over his refusal to support President Biden's Build Back Better Bill.

Manchin's announcement that he quote, just can't get there to back the bill was a crushing blow to the Biden administration and appeared to stun top officials and Democratic leaders who had assumed wrongly that he would come around on what has been the President's top

legislative priority. One that in their view would, among other things, sharply reduce child poverty, help working parents by dramatically expanding child care and take major steps to address climate change.

And perhaps just as significant the failure to pass Bill Back Better undermines Democratic arguments that they and Biden can actually get things done.

Thereby, seriously hurting the party's chances of retaining control of Congress in next fall's midterms. One who was not deterred, however, is former Democratic Congressman Max Rose.

And after Ann Morvette, Rose previously represented a district in New York that contains all of conservative Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn until he was knocked off by a Republican Trump supporter, Nicole Meliotakis last year.

But Rose is running again. We'll ask him why and why he thinks and can brook what many fear will be a red tied next November on this episode of Skull Duggery.

Hi, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States.

And we'll to the best of my building.

Reserve, protect and defend Constitution of the United States. So help me God. So help me God. So help me God.

So help me God. So help me God.

I'm Michael Isgov, Chief of Escape correspondent for Yahoo News. I'm Dan Clydeman, Editor in Chief of Yahoo News.

And I'm Victoria Bicetti, a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice.

So Clydeman, I know you warned me not to gloat, but I do have to remind our loyal listeners that for months now, you have been suggesting that the all the back and forth on build back better and the problems the Democrats were having was sort of standard legislative sausage making and it would all turn out fine in the end.

You know, my argument was no, there seemed to be much deeper divisions here and that all one had to do is listen to what mansion had been saying for months every time he'd get asked, you know, by he monorajou on CNN.

He would talk about his concerns about inflation. He would talk about how it cost too much that it wasn't all paid for. He would talk about all his many reservations on the bill. And I think that's all one had to know to realize this thing was in serious trouble in a 50 50 Senate.

And so, okay, despite your warnings, I do have to say stop there. Just stop there. Stop there. I was going to say I will eat here's the deal. I will eat pro if you don't gloat.

Okay, well, I may have already, you know, I guess out of the bag. Look, I mean, I think what happened here, it was a kind of a, I guess, a kind of a group thing on the part of, you know, Democrats, which then, you know, kind of became sort of infectious that it was the sense that, you know, this thing had this momentum that yes, of course, it was going to happen. It was just going to take time.

But, you know, in that clip that you played at the, in the intro, I think the most significant thing that mansion said was I'm from West Virginia. I'm not from where they're from.

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