Manchin prais­es Biden’s record on the one thing Democ­rats don’t want to talk about

Sen. Joe Manchin (D‑WV) offered Pres­i­dent Joe Biden rare praise in an op-ed on Mon­day, but it was on a top­ic that Democ­rats have steered away from tout­ing out of fear it would divide the vot­er base.
Manchin claimed that Biden should be proud of the “record-break­ing” ener­gy pro­duc­tion that is hap­pen­ing in the coun­try, includ­ing the pro­duc­tion of oil, gas, and renew­able ener­gy.
“I’m going to do some­thing you prob­a­bly haven’t heard me do much in the past three years: I want to con­grat­u­late Pres­i­dent Biden for the record-break­ing ener­gy pro­duc­tion we are see­ing in Amer­i­ca today,” Manchin wrote in a Wash­ing­ton Post op-ed. “Our coun­try has nev­er been more ener­gy-inde­pen­dent than we are today. This is some­thing to cel­e­brate.”
The sen­a­tor went on to cred­it the country’s ener­gy suc­cess­es on the Bipar­ti …