“Today, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, applauded the selection of West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest to provide the 2023 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree. The U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree – known as ‘The People’s Tree’ – lights up the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol during the holiday season and is selected from a different national forest each year. Today’s selection kicks off a year-long educational celebration with the theme ‘Endlessly Wild & Wonderful’ to connect people to West Virginia’s public lands.”

“‘The Capitol Christmas Tree is a wonderful, historic tradition that brings our great country together during the holidays, and I am thrilled that the 2023 tree will be from West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest,’ said Senator Joe Manchin, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. ‘The 2023 Capitol Christmas Tree will represent the wild and wonderful nature of the Mountain State – including our remarkable forestry and wildlife – for the first time since 1976. I’m grateful to the Forest Service for their hard work and partnership on this event, and I look forward to celebrating this honor with my fellow West Virginians,'” says a statement from Manchin’s office.

Wow that’s, uh, a lot of enthusiasm for a tree being cut down. So much so you’d think it was hundreds of trees being cut down to strip mine for coal or something. That Manchin almost certainly didn’t say all those things but instead had a staffer write it is besides the point, he still put his name on this bizarre victory lap over a wild West Virginian tree getting cut down and put on display.