The finger-pointing has begun.
As Democrats try to make sense of Republican Glenn Youngkin’s upset victory in the Virginia gubernatorial race, some have blamed Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for harming the Democratic agenda nationwide by stalling President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda.
The centrist Democrats from West Virginia and Arizona have been the target of ire as they hold out for a lower price tag on the infrastructure bill that is set to cost trillions. Some Democrats now think that if the bill had passed sooner, Virginians would have seen the party as able to pass a popular measure and it would have swung voters to Terry McAuliffe’s side.
MSNBC contributor Jason Johnson said that the two senators’ “obstruction helped drag down Democratic enthusiasm.”
WOE TO JOE: RED WAVE SWAMPS VIRGINIA, SENDS BIDEN HARSH MESSAGE
I hope every Democrat in the White House is ringing Manchin and Sinema and giving them an earful tonight. Thier obstruction helped drag down Democratic enthusiasm, not to mention Biden’s abject failure to pass constituent specific legislation like Police reform
— Dr. Jason Johnson (@DrJasonJohnson) November 3, 2021
Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, did not mention Manchin and Sinema by name in a statement to an NBC reporter, but he said that some Democrats in Congress were to blame for not delivering Biden’s campaign promises before the election.
Kaine: “Look, congressional Dems hurt Terry McAuliffe. I mean, I’m gonna be blunt, it’s humbling to say it. But if we had been able to deliver infrastructure & reconciliation in mid October, he could have sold universal pre K, affordable childcare, infrastructure, creating jobs.”
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) November 3, 2021
Paul Krugman, an opinion columnist for the New York Times, also placed partial blame on Manchin for McAuliffe’s loss, though he acknowledged that there were many contributing factors.
Multiple reasons Dems are having a hard time right now. But they’d surely be doing better if Joe Manchin hadn’t spent months futzing around and denying them the ability to claim that things were getting done.
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) November 3, 2021
Former South Carolina state representative and author Bakari Sellers blamed Manchin and Sinema for “not governing,” and he said they “owe the state of Virginia an apology.”
The GOP ran a master class on race based identity politics.
Manchin and Sinema owe the state of VA an apology for thinking their shit don’t stink and not governing.
Manchin’s stunt yesterday reinforced the above.
Dems always put black issues on back burner & got burned.
— Bakari Sellers (@Bakari_Sellers) November 3, 2021
The political action committee dedicated to voting Sinema out of office in 2024 used the Virginia race as fodder against her and Manchin.
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“[…] they’ve driven the president’s approval rating down nationally and hurt Democrats’ chances of winning races in states like Virginia,” Primary Sinema PAC wrote. “They have put the entire Democratic Party in peril.”
The Primary Sinema PAC is out with a statement blaming Sen. Sinema for McAuliffe’s loss last night.
A lot of Dems feel that if infrastructure and spending plan were passed earlier, McAuliffe and Virginia Dems would have benefitted pic.twitter.com/3N4IT78boo
— Julia Manchester (@JuliaManch) November 3, 2021
