“I’m concerned about the House pushing an agenda that would be hard for us to maintain the majority,” Manchin said about the progressive legislation that House Democrats are stacking up at the Senate door. As for pressure from the left, he said, tauntingly: “What are they going to do, they going to go into West Virginia and campaign against me? Please, that would help me more than anything.”…

As for any pressure that he may feel on the filibuster, Manchin said he had reminded Sen. Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, of how essential he was to providing Democrats a majority.

He said he had told Schumer, “I know one thing, Chuck, you wouldn’t have this problem at all if I wasn’t here.”