在他阻止总统通过几天后乔·拜登的 冠状病毒弗吉尼亚州民主党参议员乔·曼钦(Joe Manchin)周日在参议院表示，随着总统试图制定自己的议程，拜登将不必在平分秋色的参议院中迎合他。

“我没有为这个职位游说，”曼钦告诉美国广播公司《本周》的联合主播玛莎·拉德达兹。“我还是我一辈子的那个人。而且自从我进了公职，我也一样。在过去的10年里，我一直以同样的方式投票。我寻找中等的中间。现代中产阶级的常识就是我是谁。这就是人们的期望——我所在的西弗吉尼亚州——他们了解我。他们知道我是如何治理的——我尽力代表他们。”

Raddatz向Manchin施压，要求他在大流行期间对失业救济金的立场，此前他成功游说将失业救济金从400美元降至300美元，并将支付期限缩短一个月。周五晚上，参议院未能在通过该法案方面取得任何进展，直到曼钦接到拜登的电话，并为通过该法案做出了这些让步。

“所以在这种流行病经济中，你不认为人们需要更多的钱吗？”Raddatz问。

温和的民主党人曼钦谁在很大程度上这围绕...的辩论巨大的冠状病毒救援计划，他告诉拉德达茨，他正试图找到中间立场，以争取更多的两党支持该计划。

“我没有故意做任何事情，”曼钦说。“我尽我所能把我们团结在一起，这样我们就能得到更多的支持，公众也能在需要的时候得到所需的帮助。我们有很多不同的方式来帮助公众通过这项立法。”

曼钦说，当试图反击党派偏见时，立法更加困难，但中间立场是最好的起点。

“当我们有这种有毒的气氛，我们有分歧，还有部落心态的时候，你必须更加努力工作——玛莎，这是不可接受的。你必须努力工作，与这些欲望作斗争，”他补充道。“我一直希望温和的中产阶级能够发挥作用，这就是你执政的地方。那是你人生的起点。”

曼钦说，将金额降至300美元将使系统保持不变，这样支付就不会中断，美国人也不会没有支票。

“还有，玛莎，这是一项有针对性的立法。这是因为人们需要帮助，我们帮助了每一个场景，”他补充说。

Raddatz就两党合作的想法向Manchin提出了挑战，这位参议员长期以来一直支持这一想法，认为这对于通过这项紧急救济法案至关重要，因为救济方案在周六下午在参议院获得通过，没有一个共和党人投赞成票。

"所以在这一点上，两党合作不像是一个错误的希望吗？"她问道。

“一点也不，玛莎，”曼钦说。“在整个过程中，我们从共和党朋友那里得到了很多意见。我们所做的许多改变基本上都是通过与我的共和党和民主党同事一起工作来实现的。我们大约有20个人一直在工作，所以他们有大量的投入，但最终他们还是没有达到目标。拜登总统鼓励他们全程参与。他从头到尾都在和他们说话。”

曼钦还说，他心里知道，总统将继续与共和党人接触，因为“这就是他。”

曼钦也公开表示，他反对将联邦最低工资提高到每小时15美元，这是由进步的参议员带头的。伯尼·桑德斯，I-Vt。，并得到拜登的支持。白宫新闻秘书珍·普萨基(Jen Psaki)本周表示，政府将继续争取联邦加薪。

“我们同意桑德斯的观点，总统将会站在他身边，为将最低工资提高到每小时15美元而奋斗...他将利用他的政治资本来实现这一目标。

Raddatz周日就联邦最低工资的未来向Manchin提出挑战，因为他可以停止这一努力。

“你有自己的提议，要把最低工资提高到11美元，那么乔·拜登把他的政治资本浪费在你身上，要把最低工资提高到15美元吗？”她问道。

“一点也不。曼钦说:“乔·拜登总统知道如何达成协议。“我同意拜登总统的观点，他说，‘如果你每天都去工作，你就应该超越贫困线。’"

曼钦说，他认为基本工资应该是11美元。

“这应该是你的基数，然后我们用通胀指数来衡量，以确保它永远不会回到我们现在面临的政治难题中。这不应该是一场政治足球，”他补充道。

拉德达茨还询问了前州长曼钦关于纽约州州长安德鲁·科莫的情况。安德鲁·科莫被指控行为不当，并正在调查他的政府如何处理疗养院新冠肺炎的死亡数据，他因此卷入了丑闻。库莫正面临两党要求他辞职的呼声，因为州司法部长领导了一项对他否认的性骚扰指控的独立调查。

曼钦说，现在说州长是否应该辞职还为时过早。

“这些都是严重的指控。我知道有调查，我们应该等到调查结束。我以前见过急于下判断。我认为调查应该继续进行，以后再做决定，这就是我希望每个人都做的，让这个过程进行下去，”曼钦说。“允许调查完成。允许这个人为自己辩护，并讲述他们的故事。”

Biden will not have to cater to my agenda: Sen. Joe Manchin

Days after he held up the passage of President Joe Biden's coronavirus relief bill on the Senate floor, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said Sunday that Biden will not have to cater to him in the evenly divided Senate as the president tries to enact his agenda.

"I didn't lobby for this position," Manchin told ABC's "This Week" Co-anchor Martha Raddatz. "I'm the same person I have been all my life. And since I've been in the public offices, I'm the same. I've been voting the same way for the last 10 years. I look for that moderate middle. The common sense that comes with the modern middle is who I am. That's what people expect -- my state of West Virginia -- they know me. They know how I've governed -- I tried to basically represent them and the best of my ability."

Raddatz pressed Manchin on his stance about unemployment benefits in the midst of the pandemic after he successfully lobbied to drop unemployment payments from $400 to $300 and to shorten the duration of the payments by one month. The Senate was not able to make any headway on passing the bill Friday night until Manchin got a call from Biden and he made those concessions in order to pass the bill.

"So in this pandemic economy, you don't think people need more money?" Raddatz asked.

Manchin, a moderate Democrat who largely steered the debate surrounding the massive coronavirus relief plan, told Raddatz he was trying to find middle ground in an attempt to garner more bipartisan support for the plan.

"I didn't do anything intentionally whatsoever," Manchin said. "I did everything I could to bring us together so we'd have more support and the public would get the needed help, as needed. We have so many different ways that we're helping the public with this piece of legislation."

Manchin said that lawmaking is more difficult when trying to push back against partisanship, but the middle ground is the best place to work from.

"You've got to work a little bit harder when we have this toxic atmosphere, and the divisions that we have, and the tribal mentality -- Martha, that's not to be acceptable. You've got to work hard and fight that fight against those urges," he added. "I always want that moderate middle to be able to work and that's where you govern from. That's where you run your life from."

Manchin said dropping the amount down to $300 would allow for systems to stay in place so payments would not be interrupted and Americans wouldn't be without checks.

"Also, Martha, this was a targeted piece of legislation. It was because people need the help and we helped every scenario," he added.

Raddatz challenged Manchin on the idea of bipartisanship -- which the senator has long championed as critical in passing this emergency relief bill -- given that the relief package passed the Senate Saturday afternoon without a single Republican vote in support.

"So at this point doesn't bipartisanship seem like a false hope?" she asked.

"Not at all Martha," Manchin said. "We had an awful lot of input from Republican friends all through this process. A lot of the changes that we made that were basically brought into this process, came by working with my Republican and Democrat colleagues together. There were about 20 of us that worked continuously, so they had tremendous amount of input, they just couldn't get there at the end. And President Biden encouraged them to be involved, all the way through. He spoke to them all the way up to the end."

Manchin also said he knows in his heart that the president will continue to reach out to Republicans because "that's just who he is."

Manchin has also been vocal about his resistance to raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, spearheaded by progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and supported by Biden. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said this week that the administration will continue fighting for that federal raise.

"We agree with Sen. Sanders and the president is going to be standing right alongside him fighting for an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour ... and he will use his political capital to get that done," Psaki said.

Raddatz challenged Manchin Sunday on the future of the federal minimum wage, given that he could bring that effort to a halt.

"You have your own proposal to increase the minimum wage to $11, so is Joe Biden wasting his political capital on you to get to $15?" she asked.

"Not at all. President Joe Biden knows how to get the deal done," Manchin said. "I agree with President Biden when he says, 'if you go to work every day you should be above the poverty guidelines.'"

Manchin said the he believes the base pay should be $11.

"That should be your base and then we index it with inflation, to make sure it never gets back in this political conundrum we have right now. It shouldn't be a political football," he added.

Raddatz also asked Manchin, a former governor, about New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is embroiled in a scandal amid allegations of inappropriate conduct and an ongoing investigation into how his administration handled nursing home COVID-19 death data. Cuomo is facing bipartisan calls to resign as the state attorney general leads an independent investigation into the sexual harassment claims that he has denied.

Manchin said it is too early to say whether the governor should resign.

"These are serious allegations. I understand there's an investigation and we should wait until the investigation is finished. I've seen a rush to judgment before. And I think the investigation should proceed and make a decision later and that's what I would hope everyone would do and allow this process to go through," Manchin said. "Allow the investigation to be completed. Allow the person to be defend themselves and tell their story, too."