WASHINGTON — The White House has reached an impasse with Sen. Joe Manchin, the centrist Democrat from conservative West Virginia who this week reiterated his opposition to key elements of the president’s legislative agenda.
It’s left President Joe Biden with a decision to make.
In coming months, the leader of the Democratic Party must decide whether he can cajole Manchin with a mixture of schmoozing and arm-twisting that eventually convinces the lawmaker to relent — a process that threatens to further delay Biden’s agenda if it fails — or instead capitulate and move on to other issues, a decision that would anger the president’s liberal base and reduce the size and scope of his potential accomplishments.
