Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said he favors a multi-trillion infrastructure plan, but not $2,000 COVID-19 relief checks to Americans unless they’re “targeted.”
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Manchin said he’s “on board by helping people that need help, people that really can't make it, don't have a job, can't put food on their table.”
“Sending checks to people that basically already have a check and are not going to spend it, usually are putting it in their savings account right now, that's not who we are,” he said.
“We have done an awful lot of that. It's time now to target where the money goes. Make sure the people in need… Let's do something that puts people back to work. Infrastructure. You want to spend $2 trillion, $3 trillion, invest it in infrastructure. FDR did it. We have seen it before.”
Pressed on his support of more money to those struggling amid the virus pandemic, Manchin he’d support the $2,000 checks “if they're targeted, not carte blanch across the board.”
Manchin also said he was cautious about support of gun control measures, saying voters “shouldn’t be scared to death of Democrats taking their guns away.”
“I went to the shooting range yesterday so I can practice and get in shape,” he said. “We're not going to take guns away, but there should be things people should not have in their hands.”
He also called an impeachment of President Donald Trump for his role in rioters breaching the Capitol a “political” solution that he doesn’t favor.
“Everyone believes that impeachment is a political route even though we know the purpose and the reason for to us do it — because there has been a violation,” he said.
“But that basically stops us from putting a government together. And Joe Biden, first thing he needs to do, put his people in and get them confirmed. That should be the first thing we are doing in the first week. Then get people vaccinated. Then get people back to work and get businesses opened up.”
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