President Joe Biden appeared indifferent on Monday after leftist protesters used aggressive tactics to confront moderate Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Joe Manchin (D-WV).
Leftists are furious after both moderate senators voiced their opposition to his multitrillion social entitlement agenda. Protesters in kayaks confronted Manchin at his houseboat in Washington, DC, last week.
Manchin engaged with the flotilla of progressive activists that has been staging sail-in protests outside his houseboat every afternoon this week: pic.twitter.com/NMm4vKErIl
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) October 1, 2021
Sinema was confronted by leftist protesters in the bathroom over the weekend.
🔴BREAKING: Blanca, an AZ immigrant youth confronts @SenatorSinema inside her classroom, where she teaches @ ASU. "in 2010 both my grandparents got deported bc of SB1070…my grandfather passed away 2 wks ago & I wasn't able to go to Mexico bc there is no pathway to citizenship." pic.twitter.com/JDZYY2fOD2
— LUCHA Arizona (@LUCHA_AZ) October 3, 2021
Biden was asked by a reporter if he believed the tactics used by the protesters were appropriate.
“I don’t think they are appropriate tactics, but it happens to everybody,” Biden replied.
He noted that as president, he was protected by the Secret Service but members of Congress were not.
“The only people it doesn’t happen to are people who have Secret Service standing around them,” he said. “It’s part of the process.”
Biden repeated that Sinema and Manchin were the only two Democrats in the Senate standing in the way of his agenda.
US President Joe Biden gestures as he delivers remarks on the debt ceiling from the State Dining Room of the White House on October 4, 2021 in Washington, DC. – President Joe Biden on Monday called Republican opponents “reckless and dangerous” for refusing to join Democrats in raising the US debt limit, putting the world’s biggest country at risk of imminent default. (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)
“Two. Two people,” he said. “That’s still underway.”
The president said he had already won approval for his agenda from the majority of his party but faced the struggle of having only slim margins in the Senate.
“I don’t think there’s been a president who’s been able to close deals that’s been in a position where he only has 50 votes in the senate and a bare majority in the House,” he said.
He promised to pass his agenda, despite the ongoing roadblocks in the Senate.
“I need 50 votes in the Senate. I have 48,” he said.
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