Justice Democrats co-founder: Democrats have allowed Manchin, Sinema to become “dictators” of party

Corbin Trent, a co-founder of Justice Democrats and No Excuses PAC, slammed Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) following the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill Friday.

“It’s kind of wild that we let Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin sort of become the dictators of the party and start running our agenda and where we are heading as a country,” Trent said on Hill TV’s “Rising” Monday.

The comment came as Trent discussed the passage of the long awaited bill, saying it can’t be sold as “transformational” by the Democrats, as major reforms had to be stripped from the legislation to appease the more moderate senators. 

Trent praised the progressive members of the party, who he said were striving for more dramatic changes he believes would help the American people. 

“The problem is I think our party, the Democratic Party, and the progressives sort of believe things need to be done that we’ve got to fix a lot of the stuff that’s broken here while it seems like the moderates of the party and the Republicans generally don’t necessarily think it has to be done,” Trent said. 

The passage of the infrastructure bill shows the Democratic Party is willing to cave in order to accomplish something in Congress rather than push for bigger transformations, Trent said. 

The Biden administration has touted the infrastructure bill, which earned the votes of 19 Republicans in the Senate. 

Trent’s comments come as Democrats are looking to pass a larger spending bill without any support from the GOP.