Updated at 6:49 p.m.
President Trump criticized Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin in his home state of West Virginia Thursday and added a taunt about a Senate banking relief bill he supports even though Manchin did vote for the measure.
“You won’t believe this, we’re actually getting bipartisan support,” Trump said of the bill, which passed the Senate last month with 17 Democratic votes. “Does anyone believe that? Maybe Joe won’t. But most people would.”
The bill is a package of measures mostly targeted at relieving regulatory burdens on community and regional banks. It has yet to be reconciled with legislation in the House.
Manchin voted for the bill, but nevertheless suffered criticism related to the bill from Trump during his Thursday appearance in White Sulphur Springs, a visit advertised as a tax reform roundtable.
It was one of several lines of attack Trump used against the Democrat while sitting between two of Manchin’s potential Republican challengers in the fall: Rep. Evan Jenkins and Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.
Manchin later put out a statement in response to comments made at the roundtable, providing “answers” instead of “political posturing back and forth.”
Manchin responds to Trump and co. dragging him at the “tax roundtable” in W. Va. today pic.twitter.com/iisEBXw5xH
— Joe Perticone (@JoePerticone) April 5, 2018
Trump’s comments on the banking bill were set off by remarks from a banker at the roundtable.
“We’ve made it a lot easier for you to lend now to great people that, a short period of time ago, you were not able to lend – because of rules, regulations,” Trump said. “And you were lending to people who you didn’t even want to lend [to].”
The president added that the Senate bill “should be done fairly quickly.”
