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Vice President Kamala Harris gained an unexpected fan of her debate performance on Tuesday: Senator Joe Manchin, the independent former Democrat from West Virginia who has often proven to be a thorn in the side of the Biden administration.
“I thought it was wonderful,” he told The Independent. “First time I’ve heard anybody acknowledge in the administration [that] we're producing more energy because of the bills we passed. The first time we talked about fossil energy.”
Manchin, who represents the coal-heavy state of West Virginia, expressed skepticism about major spending projects to combat climate change, which also included provisions for fracking. He famously killed Build Back Better, the Democrats’ proposed major spending bill that would have included major provisions to combat climate change.
Later, Manchin would co-author the Inflation Reduction Act, which Harris as vice president voted for to break a tie in the Senate.
During the debate on Tuesday night, debate moderators and former president Donald Trump questioned Harris about her abandoning her previous opposition to fracking, an industry that employs people in swing states like Pennsylvania, where the debate was held. Harris specifically cited the Inflation Reduction Act.
“I have not banned fracking as Vice President of the United States,” she said. “And, in fact, I was the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which opened new leases for fracking.”
Manchin praised that answer.
“I was tickled to death,” he said, “and now we have a policy that’s producing energy that we need and investing in energy we want.”
Last year, Manchin announced that he would not seek re-election and earlier this year announced he had left the Democratic Party to become an independent.
The move is not the first time that Manchin has praised Harris, who worked with Manchin in the Senate. Last month, he praised her selection of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.
“Governor Walz is the real deal,” he said. “I look forward to continuing to work with him to bring normalcy back to Washington.”
