Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders crictised his West Virginia counterpart Joe Manchin after the latter said that he would oppose President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act. 

Sanders, during an interview with CNN’s ‘State of the Union’, said that Manchin would have a of explaining to do to the people of West Virginia over his opposition to the roughly $2 trillion bill that Democrats have been trying to negotiate for nearly a year.

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“Well, I think he’s going to have a lot of explaining to do to the people of West Virginia, to tell him why he doesn’t have the guts to take on the drug companies to lower the cost of prescription drugs,” Sanders said.

Earlier, conservative democrat Manchin said he cannot back his party’s signature social and environment bill. 

Also read: What is Build Back Better Act? How will it affect you?

He told ‘Fox News Sunday’ that he always has made clear he had reservations about the bill and that now, after five-and-half months of discussions and negotiations, “I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation.” His choice of words suggested an openness to continuing talks, but all but said the bill would die unless it was reshaped to his terms.

Hitting back at Manchin, Bernie Sanders said that the West Virginia Senator will have to tell the ‘people of West Virginia why he doesn’t want to expand Medicare to cover dental hearing and eyeglasses’. 

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“West Virginia is one of the poorest states in this country. You got elderly people and disabled people who would like to stay at home.”

“I’ve been to West Virginia a number of times, and it’s a great state, beautiful people, but it is a state that is struggling. And he’s going to have to tell the people of West Virginia why he’s rejecting what the scientists of the world are telling us that we have to act boldly and transform our energy system to protect future generations from the devastation of climate change,” Sanders said. 

“Joe Manchin voted for a huge increase in military spending. Manchin voted for an infrastructure bill which added $250 billion to the deficit. The truth of the matter is that if you look at the military budget $770 billion times that by 10 years, it is four times is higher than what the build back better plan is,” he said.