Comment The White House spent Saturday trying to contain criticism from Sen. Joe Manchin III (DW.Va.) in response to comments made by President Biden that said the days of coal as America’s main energy source were coming to an end. The public spat between two prominent Democrats comes as the president and other party leaders criss-cross the country making their final arguments before Tuesday’s election. Speaking at an event Friday in Carlsbad, Calif., to highlight the Democratic Party’s midterm achievements, Biden celebrated the passage of the Chips and Science Act by supporting new energy technologies and suggested coal plants should be a thing of the past. “Nobody is building new coal plants because they can’t count on them, even if they’re guaranteed all the coal for the rest of the plant’s existence. So it’s going to be a generation of wind,” Biden said. Later, he added, “We’re going to shut down these factories across America and have wind and solar power.” That prompted a rebuke from Manchin, who on Saturday called the comments “outrageous and disconnected from reality.” Manchin, who represents a coal-producing state, said “comments like these are why the American people are losing confidence in President Biden.” “It seems like his positions change depending on the audience and the politics of the day,” Manchin added. “Politicizing our nation’s energy policies will only bring higher prices and more pain for the American people.” In an evenly divided Senate, key parts of Biden’s agenda have often succeeded or failed at Manchin’s tilt. The senator almost single-handedly put the brakes on Biden’s Build Back Better plan, a $2 trillion social spending package. Manchin said Biden owed coal workers an apology. “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,” said the senator. Soon after, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a conciliatory statement. “President Biden knows that the men and women of coal country built this nation: they fueled its steel mills and factories, kept its homes, schools and offices warm,” Jean-Pierre said. “They made this the most productive and powerful nation on Earth.” Jean-Pierre said Saturday that Biden’s words were manipulated to cause harm, noting that the president does not want to put more Americans out of work. The unemployment rate has fallen below 4 percent since Biden took office, he said, noting that it was 6.2 percent in the last month before the president entered the White House. “The President’s remarks yesterday were twisted to suggest a meaning that was not intended. sorry if anyone who heard these comments was offended,” Jean-Pierre said. “The President was commenting on a fact of economics and technology: As it has since its earliest days as an energy superpower, America is once again in the midst of an energy transition.”