Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, criticized President Joe Biden over his comments about closing coal plants across the country, calling them "divorced from reality" just a few days before the midterm elections.
During a speech in California on Friday, the president said that coal plants cost too much money and that his administration will "be shutting these plants down all across America" and have "wind and solar" energy instead.
"No one is building new coal plants because they can't rely on it, even if they have all the coal guaranteed for the rest of their existence of the plant," the president added. "So it's going to become a wind generation."
Manchin, whose state is one of the largest coal producers in the country, blasted the president in a statement on his website on Saturday.
"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. "Comments like these are the reason the American people are losing trust in President Biden and instead believes he does not understand the need to have an all in energy policy that would keep our nation totally energy independent and secure."
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre released a statement on Saturday afternoon in response to Manchin's statement.
"The President's remarks yesterday have been twisted to suggest a meaning that was not intended; he regrets it if anyone hearing these remarks took offense. The President was commenting on a fact of economics and technology: as it has been from its earliest days as an energy superpower, America is once again in the midst of an energy transition. Our goal as a nation is to combat climate change and increase our energy security by producing clean and efficient American energy," Jean-Pierre said.
She continued: "President Biden knows that the men and women of coal country built this nation: they powered its steel mills and factories, kept its homes and schools and offices warm. They made this the most productive and powerful nation on Earth."
The senator's remarks come during a busy weekend for Biden and Democrats who are trying to gain support from voters for Tuesday's midterm elections. Biden is rallying in Pennsylvania on Saturday and Florida on Sunday while Vice President Kamala Harris is set to make a stop in Illinois on Sunday.
"It seems his positions change depending on the audience and the politics of the day. Politicizing our nation's energy policies would only bring higher prices and more pain for the American people," Manchin said in his statement.
The West Virginia senator also said that Biden "never" mentioned shutting down coal plants to him and added that "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."
Manchin concluded his statement by saying that Biden owes workers at coal plants an "immediate and public" apology, and that the president should learn that his words have consequences.
"Working closely with Senator Manchin, a tireless advocate for his state and the hard-working men and women who live there, President Biden has helped get this part of the country back to work: the unemployment rate in West Virginia was 6.2% the last month before Joe Biden took office; now it is down to 4%," Jean-Pierre said Saturday.
During a podcast in July, the senator said that even though he thinks Biden is "a good person," he disagrees with the president over his "lack" of energy policy and his handling of record-high inflation.
Meanwhile, Manchin said in July during a podcast that even though he thinks Biden is "a good person," he disagrees with the president over his "lack" of energy policy and his handling of record-high inflation.
Manchin has been repeatedly criticized by members of his own party for not supporting some of the issues on his party's agenda such as the rules of the filibuster, which Democrats want to change so that Republicans can't use it to block Democratic bills in an evenly divided Senate.
Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment.
Update 11/5/22, 3:37 p.m. ET: This story has been updated to include comments by White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Fatma Khaled is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. politics, world ... Read more
