What Joe Manchin told Steve Clemons at dinner

The Conversation with Dasha Burns

POLITICO

News, Government, Politics

4.0 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 14 January 2022

⏱️ 62 minutes

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Summary

Steve Clemons is a DC institution — an operator who connects some of the biggest power players in the Capitol. He also happens to be the confidant of the most powerful senator in Washington, Democrat Joe Manchin. Playbook author Ryan Lizza joins Clemons for breakfast at the Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown to dish on what's motivating Manchin behind the scenes, and what he might do next. Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.Steve Clemons is Editor At Large of The HillKara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.Carlos Prieto is a producer for POLITICO audio.Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO audio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Ryan Liza, this is Playbook Deep Dive. It's Thursday morning and I'm at the four seasons
0:14.4	in Georgetown having breakfast with Steve Clemens. Steve's day job is riding his opinions
0:21.0	as editor at large for the hill. But the reason I'm here eating pancakes with Steve, he's
0:27.2	having oatmeal with a side of bacon. Yeah, I don't have maybe a little bacon on the side,
0:32.0	sorry folks, and I'm gonna have some some berries as well. Is that this guy knows more than
0:38.2	maybe anyone else about what's going on inside of perhaps the most important person in Washington
0:45.1	right now, Senator Joe Machen. In fact, Steve just had dinner with him last night.
0:51.9	Well, we'll see. You tell me what red lines you can't cross. No, I will. I'll say, hey, I'm
0:58.7	not gonna push you on. No, I know you're gonna push me and I know what's in it. Yeah.
1:03.1	I heard that last night you had an interesting dinner. Yeah. So, who did you have dinner
1:11.6	with last night, Steve? The first dinner or the second dinner? Wow, I don't know. Let's
1:20.9	hear it. No, I mean, like, yeah, sorry, I'd be careful, but I had dinner with Joe Machen.
1:24.1	Yeah. And with Mandy Winegarten at Cafe Milano. This is on the eve of when Joe Biden is going
1:34.1	up to the Senate to speak at the caucus lunch and basically try and pressure Machen and Houston
1:41.4	cinema to change their views on the filibuster and support voting rights. You're having dinner
1:48.4	with Joe Machen on the eve of one of the most important days of his Senate career. Yeah. So, I
1:56.6	can talk about what I think the players are doing, rather than not talking just about the conversation
2:01.9	at the dinner. And I just want to be honest with people is sometimes it's not a function of
2:07.8	corruption or special interests. It's sometimes just a function of, you know, lack of imagination
2:14.6	or people are driven by inertia. So, I kind of see a role that fits with my role as an opinion
2:25.4	journalist. So, I'm not a reporting journalist, right? So, there's a different big difference
2:30.0	as somebody who has views and attitudes, but I try to be responsible and transparent about it.
	...

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