Sen. Manchin criticizes vice president's interview with W.Va. station, highlighting Biden's tricky Senate balancing act

Vice President Kamala Harris is facing blowback after a Jan. 28 interview with a West Virginia TV station about the administration's pandemic relief package, highlighting the complicated politics surrounding the issue and the Biden administration's precarious position in the Senate. 

During the interview with NBC affiliate WSAZ-TV in Huntington, Harris noted that the pandemic has hit the state's economy hard and spoke about finding work for laid-off coal miners in reclaiming abandoned mines (though she misspoke and said "abandoned land mines," which spawned social-media mocking). Sen. Joe Manchin, the only Democrat elected statewide in West Virginia, complained to the station the next day that the White House hadn't asked his advice about persuading West Virginians, Cleve R. Wootson Jr. reports for The Washington Post. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the administration has been in regular contact with Manchin for weeks and will continue to be, but said the administration also wants to make a case for its recovery plan directly to voters. 

Though Harris had a very liberal voting record as a senator, her appearance "seemed to be part of an effort to pressure moderate senators, since she also spoke to a news station in Arizona, home to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who like Manchin is a centrist Democrat," Wootson reports. An evenly split Senate means "means centrist Democratic senators, who are most likely to defect, will often control the fate of Biden’s initiatives."

An anonymous Manchin adviser said the senator is not unaware of this power, Wootson reports. But Manchin has made his name — and kept his seat — by cultivating a reputation as a maverick, according to West Virginia-based political scientist Patrick Hickey. So an early clash with the Biden administration could be a "political boon" for the senator.

At any rate, the dust-up, "while minor in many ways, makes it clear how difficult it may be for Biden to achieve the unity he has called for — even within his own party," Wootson reports.