Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell encouraged Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to sink Joe Biden's $1.75 trillion social safety net program.
McConnell cited Democrats' disastrous results in Virginia last week, when the party lost the gubernatorial election, and the close re-election of the Democratic governor in New Jersey, where Dems hold a 1 million voter registration advantage.
'If the Democrats in the Senate, all 50 of them, fall in line, they can pass it. If any one of them isn't there in a 50-50 Senate, it will be defeated,' McConnell told Kentucky radio station WKYX.
'The two Senate Democrats who are resisting - Joe Manchin from West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona - we'll see how strong they are. They could kill the whole thing, either one of them,' he added.
Manchin and Sinema have not publicly committed to voting for Biden's Build Back Better bill, which the House is expected to take up next week when lawmakers return to Washington.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell encouraged Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to sink Joe Biden's $1.75 trillion social safety net program
Senators Joe Manchin (left) and Kyrsten Sinema (right) have not publicly committed to voting for Biden's Build Back Better bill, which the House is expected to take up next week when lawmakers return to Washington
In the evenly divided 50-50 Senate, President Biden needs every Democratic vote to move his agenda through.
Biden has already cut his proposal by nearly in half - down from its original $3 billion - because of concerns Manchin and Sinema had about its cost.
Republicans also see the two senators as their best chance to make changes to the legislation when its debated in the Senate - through a chaotic process known as a vote-a-rama, where GOP senators could get proposals into the legislation if they can peel off one Democrat.
McConnell also blamed the administration for the high inflation the county is experiencing in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic. And he claimed that was one of the factors voters were reacting to.
'This administration, it's just a mess,' he said. 'It's a mess and that's what we saw the American people reacting to and both in New Jersey just a week ago.'
On Wednesday, the Labor Department announced inflation picked up to 0.9 per cent last month from September, faster than the prior month’s increase of 0.4 per cent and above expectations.
Additionally, overall prices of goods and services have climbed by 6.2 per cent over the past 12 months, the fastest pace since 1990 - all of which is troubling
