Sen. Joe Manchin on Saturday criticized President Joe Biden after he called for the shutdown of coal plants across the U.S., saying Biden’s statements are “outrageous and disconnected from reality” and suggesting it’s “time for him to learn a lesson.”   

  Speaking at a stop in Carlsbad, Calif., on Friday about the CHIPS and Science Act, Biden said, “We’re going to shut down these plants across America and have wind and solar provide a rebate as well tax to help families buy energy-efficient appliances.”   

  Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat with long-standing ties to the coal industry, seized on the comments in a statement Saturday, calling them “not only outrageous and disconnected from reality, but they ignore the severe economic pain the American people are feeling because of of the rise.  energy cost”.   

  “Comments like these are why the American people are losing confidence in President Biden and instead believe he does not understand the need to have an energy policy that would keep our nation fully energy independent and secure.  His positions seem to change depending on the audience and the politics of the day.  Politicizing our nation’s energy policies would only bring higher prices and more pain for the American people,” Manchin continued.   

  It is not unusual for Manchin, a moderate Democrat who has declined to say whether he believes Biden deserves a second term in office, to criticize Biden’s agenda, and his reluctance to support Democratic initiatives has sometimes prevented the president from achieving some legislative goals. .  .  But Saturday’s statement is an extraordinary rebuke from a sitting US senator of his party’s leader and serves to illustrate the ongoing tension between the centrist and more progressive wings of the Democratic Party.   

  Manchin, a deeply red state senator running for re-election in 2024, further sought to distance himself from Biden in his statement when he said: “Let me be clear, this is something the President did not tell me never”.   

  “To be cavalier about the loss of coal jobs for men and women in West Virginia and across the country who have literally put their lives on the line to help build and make this country strong is insulting and disgusting.  The President owes these incredible workers an immediate and public apology, and it’s time for him to learn a lesson that his words matter and have consequences,” Manchin concluded.   

  White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre responded in a statement Saturday, saying Biden’s words had been “twisted.”   

  “The President’s remarks yesterday were twisted to suggest a meaning that was not intended.  sorry if anyone who heard these remarks was offended.  The President was commenting on a fact of economics and technology: as it has been since its early days as an energy superpower, America is once again in the midst of an energy transition,” said Jean-Pierre.   

  Jean-Pierre’s statement directly mentioned Manchin only once, saying he is a “tireless supporter of his state and the hard-working men and women who live there.”   

  This story has been updated with additional reaction.