(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden hasn’t given up on his roughly $2 trillion Build Back Better economic plan after Senator Joe Manchin rejected it on Sunday and will continue pushing the West Virginia Democrat, his press secretary said.

“He’s no stranger to legislative challenges, so we’re going to continue to take steps, work like hell to get it done,” Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in a briefing on Monday.

Manchin dealt the president’s domestic agenda a blow over the weekend when he announced on Fox News that he wouldn’t support Build Back Better, squashing hopes for the president’s effort to address climate change, child care, health-care costs and other priorities.

Manchin initially described his opposition as ideological, saying negotiators hadn’t done enough to address his concern about long-term costs and making sure new social programs didn’t benefit the wealthy.

But there were also signals the move was personal. Manchin had an aide inform the White House only minutes before his appearance on a network widely reviled within the West Wing. And in a radio interview on Monday, the West Virginia senator suggested the fate of the bill was sealed by a dispute with some of the president’s staff.

“They know the real reason what happened,” Manchin said, adding that his objection was not with the president. “It’s the staff. And they drove some things and they put some things out that were absolutely inexcusable. They know what it is.”

Psaki declined to discuss the relationship between Manchin and Biden or preview any conversations they might have. “We’re going to keep those private,” she said.

For a White House already reeling from a fresh wave of coronavirus infections threatening the nation’s health systems and economic recovery, Manchin’s defection hit particularly hard.  

Psaki – who for months described the senator as operating in good faith – issued a blistering statement saying his reversal represented “a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position, and a breach of his commitments to the president and the senator’s colleagues in the House and Senate.”

She also said Manchin had presented the president with a written counteroffer of similar size and scope as recently as Tuesday. A person familiar with Manchin’s outline said it carried a price tag of $1.8 trillion over 10 years. 

The Washington Post reported that it included an expansion of pre-kindergarten and the Affordable Care Act and climate provisions similar to Biden’s, but would have discontinued an expanded child tax credit the president frequently credits for slashing child poverty.

Psaki declined to confirm details of Manchin’s proposal.

The path forward for the White House remains unclear. While Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Senate would vote early next year on the package regardless of Manchin’s announcement, the gambit is not expected to pay dividends beyond satisfying progressive lawmakers who have demanded Manchin be forced to officially record his opposition.

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