News - How secret negotiations revived Joe Biden's agenda and shocked Washington

It's less than half the size of Biden's original Build Back Better bill, and Manchin made sure to emphasize that name had been scrapped. Republicans are uniformly opposed, and certain Democrats in both the Senate and House have yet sign on, making the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 anything but a done deal.

But after appearing moribund for months, the agreement injected new life into ambitions that many Democrats had mostly put aside. Paired with Thursday's passage of a bill boosting US computer chip production, the President's legislative prospects are looking up.

Biden spoke to the senator — who is isolating with Covid in the mountains of West Virginia — on Wednesday, having mostly given up on formal talks with Manchin after watching the senator repeatedly derail his agenda. It was their first formal call on Democrats' agenda since December.

"The work of the government can be slow and frustrating and sometimes even infuriating," Biden said a day later, emerging into the White House's State Dining Room to herald the surprise developments. "Then the hard work of hours and days and months for people who refuse to give up pays off. History is made. Lives are changed."

The climate and tax deal came together in almost complete secret, catching many by surprise Wednesday when it was announced in the late afternoon.

"Holy shit," Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota wrote on Twitter. "Stunned, but in a good way."

That sentiment was a distant cry from the mood among Democrats on July 14, the day Manchin publicly torpedoed the climate and energy measures that had been at the center of the Biden administration's pledge to dramatically reduce carbon emissions.

After dying repeated deaths over the past year, the blow two weeks ago to the President's domestic agenda was hardly a shock to the White House. Senior administration officials had by then adopted a deeply skeptical view of negotiations between Manchin and Schumer over reviving the President's plans.

As he was quick to point out himself, Biden had been mostly excused from the talks altogether.

"I didn't negotiate with Joe Manchin," he said on July 15 inside the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Jeddah when a reporter asked whether Manchin was negotiating in good faith. "I have no idea."

The most conservative Democrat in the Senate had concerns about the most recent inflation numbers. A report on July 14 showed inflation rising 9.1% year-over-year in June, a 40-year high.

"When that 9.1 came in, I said, 'I can't, I just can't do it,'" Manchin said Thursday, recounting the conversation he held with Schumer after the two had been in private talks on reviving Biden's climate priorities for three months. "That's when Chuck got upset."

The conversations weren't always calm or collected.

"Our tempers get a little bit ahead of us at times," Manchin said, saying some had "turned the dogs loose" on him for what they said was walking away from the deal.

By the following week, however, the two senators had lowered the temperature. Passing each other in a Capitol hallway on July 18, Manchin asked Schumer if he was still upset.

"I said, 'This is ridiculous,'" Manchin said. "Let's recalibrate and see if there's something that can be done. And to his credit, he says, 'OK.'"

Schumer said at a news conference Thursday that Manchin came to him that day with an offer: "Can we work together and try and put together a bill?"

Even then, however, the timeline was uncertain.

Manchin had said publicly he'd do nothing on climate until September and would have to wait until he saw August's inflation numbers. Schumer was firm with Manchin that a climate deal needed to be reached before then.

"I said, 'As long as we finish it in August, we're not waiting for September,'" Schumer recounted.

Manchin initially refused, but Schumer plowed ahead with items the West Virginian would support. The senator eventually came back and said he was willing to move forward with an August timeline, the aide said.

Helping secure his support were a few commitments and concessions.