Amid a new push by Democrats to revive talks with conservatives in their party on President Joe Biden’s social, economic and climate agenda, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) is headed to a fundraiser at a billionaire’s house in California this weekend, hosted by the right-leaning political group No Labels.
As uncovered by The InterceptManchin will attend a private event at Howard Marks’ Los Angeles residence this Saturday. Howard Marks is co-founder and CEO of Oaktree Capital Management which has a net worth over $1 billion. about $2.2 billion. Manchin will most likely be seated with Michael Milken. a Donald-Trump pardonedAccording to Forbes, an investor and financier with a net value of $3.8 million. Forbes.
No Labels is the group hosting the event. is infamous among progressive groups for backing politicians with supposedly “sensible” politics that “have an uncanny likelihood of benefiting one particular element of our nation’s political economy: the superrich, or more precisely, the finance industry,” as Clio Chang wrote for The InterceptIn 2018.
According to investigative reports, No Labels played at least a small role in getting last year’s Build Back Better Act gutted and killed. At one point last summer, reporters uncoveredThe group seemed to have offered to donate money to conservative Democrats in order to form a united front against all of the Democratic party.
In June 2021 A leaked callIt was revealed that Manchin had attended at least one meeting with the group, as well as their billionaire allies, about the maintenance of the filibuster. The West Virginia lawmaker spent most of the year working on the proposal. Excuse after Excuse to justify his opposition to nearly every provision in the bill — only for it to come out laterManchin had probably decided early in the long, months-long negotiations that he was involved in that he It was never going be possible to supportAccording to Washington insiders, and colleagues, the bill was passed regardless of how many adjustments Democrats made for him.
During the negotiations Manchin fraternized Executives from the coal industryReceived and accepted donations From conservative billionairesNever donated to Democrats before. His PAC brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars. In fundsFrom major corporations like Lockheed Martin, Wells Fargo or fossil gas company CNX Resources.
In the months since Manchin killed The Build Back Better Act, Progressives and Democrats have been trying to revive talks on the bill — or at least its crucial provisions to combat the climate crisis, as continued emissions are locking inGlobal warming is becoming more dangerous.
Despite the fact that coal barons are still in existence met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers on energy and climate reforms this week, it’s unlikely that he will support any legislation that would meaningfully draw down the use of fossil fuels. Last month, He was shot to deathNomination of Climate champion Sarah Bloom Raskin to the Federal Reserve Board, saying that she wasn’t a supporter of the “all-of-the-above” style of energy policy that is killingAny prospects for a livable environment.
Manchin is still in the process of being built. also complainedThis week’s story is about the erosion and revocation of the Voting Rights Bill, which in theory bans racial discrimination in elections. But he’s the one who spent last year refusing to change the filibuster to pass Democrats’ voting rights billRather, the lawmaker even eventually opposed his own “compromise” voting rights bill, which he tried and failed to sell to Republicans.
