. . . courtesy of Playbook:
Less than 30 minutes before he killed the Democratic Party’s most important piece of legislation, an aide was dispatched by Sen. JOE MANCHIN(D-W.Va.) to give the White House and congressional leadership a heads up.
The senator himself was about to go live and was prepping for his interview with BRET BAIER on “Fox News Sunday.” He was out of town with family and doing the hit via satellite, but still had his best Sunday show attire. He wore a red tie and pin-striped suit. His hair looked perfect. It would probably be one of the most viral video clips of his long career.
At the White House, there was panic and disbelief. He sent an aide to tell the president of the United States that he was about to go on Fox News and put a bullet in BBB?
Top White House officials scrambled to call the senator and talk him out of what he was about to do.
“We tried to head him off,” a senior White House official told Playbook, but Manchin “refused to take a call from White House staff.”
At Fox News’ Washington studio, Baier was hosting his first episode of “Fox News Sunday” since CHRIS WALLACE abruptly decamped for CNN+ last weekend. The show’s staff knew how much attention would be on them and how important it was, in the ongoing war between news and opinion at Fox, to prove that the news side still could drive the conversation about the network.
Manchin didn’t give Baier a heads up about the news he was about to break.