Golf special<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cJoe Manchin obviously is running for a Cabinet spot,\u201d Reid told CNN on Monday. \u201cI know that we\u2019ve done stuff in the last few weeks to try to make Manchin happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democrats rallied behind Manchin last week, supporting his call to further extend expiring health benefits for retired miners in the government funding bill that passed Friday.<\/p>\n
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They hope he will run for reelection in West Virginia, a state President-elect Donald TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE won with nearly 70 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n
But if he jumps to the Trump administration, possibly to serve as secretary of Energy or in another high-ranking position, Democrats at least can fall back on the expectation that West Virginia\u2019s Democratic governor would appoint another Democrat to fill Manchin\u2019s seat, at least until the 2018 mid-term election.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019d be another Democrat, at least temporarily,\u201d Reid noted.<\/p>\n
Reid and incoming Senate Democratic Leader Charles SchumerChuck SchumerOvernight Health Care: US showing signs of retreat in battle against COVID-19 | Regeneron begins clinical trials of potential coronavirus antibody treatment | CMS warns nursing homes against seizing residents’ stimulus checks Schumer requests briefing with White House coronavirus task force as cases rise Schumer on Trump’s tweet about 75-year-old protester: He ‘should go back to hiding in the bunker’ MORE (D-N.Y.) gave Manchin plenty of room to demand better treatment for miners in the year-end spending bill, even though Manchin and Reid have not had the best relationship.<\/p>\n
Manchin voted against Reid serving another term as leader and after the election blasted his leader for harshly criticizing Trump, calling Reid \u201can absolute embarrassment.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Reid suggested that Manchin may have criticized him last month in order to butter up Trump and increase his chances of getting a job in the administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cManchin of course is running for a part in the Trump administration, so maybe that\u2019s the way he got the door opened,\u201d the Nevada Democrat said.<\/p>\n
The other Democratic senator who is up for a possible nomination to Trump\u2019s Cabinet is Sen. Heidi HeitkampMary (Heidi) Kathryn Heitkamp70 former senators propose bipartisan caucus for incumbents Susan Collins set to play pivotal role in impeachment drama Pro-trade group launches media buy as Trump and Democrats near deal on new NAFTA MORE (N.D.), whose name has been floated to serve as secretary of Agriculture or Energy.<\/p>\n
Reid, however, said Monday that he\u2019s confident that Heitkamp won\u2019t jump from the Senate to serve in the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no idea what they\u2019re going to do. I just know Heidi Heitkamp, I would doubt very seriously \u2014 she being the populist that she is \u2014 that she would do that,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Senate Democratic Leader Harry ReidHarry Mason ReidHarry Reid says he’s cancer free White House gets jolt from strong jobs report Murkowski, Mattis criticism ratchets up pressure on GOP over Trump MORE (Nev.) acknowledged on Monday that he and other party leaders have tried to keep West Virginia Sen. Joe ManchinJoseph (Joe) ManchinTrump administration seeks to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}