As Joe Manchin prepares to depart Congress after almost 15 years, the West Virginia senator, who left the Democratic Party and registered as an independent earlier this year, is further separating himself from his former party, labeling the Democratic brand “toxic.”
“The D-brand has been so maligned from the standpoint of, it’s just, it’s toxic,” Manchin told AWN’s Manu Raju in an interview broadcast on Sunday, citing the shift as the reason he quit the party.
Adding that he no longer considers himself a Democrat “in the form of what the Democratic Party has turned itself into,” Manchin, who has long been a pivotal swing vote in the Senate, said the party’s brand has become about telling people what they can and cannot do, blaming progressives for the shift.
“They have basically expanded upon thinking, ‘Well, we want to protect you there, but we’re going to tell you how you should live your life from that far on,'” he said.
Manchin portrayed progressives — a small group of politicians within the party who he thinks wield enormous power — as out of touch with the majority of Americans.
“This country is not going left,” he declared.
The former West Virginia governor-turned-senator stated that he was a lifelong Democrat because the party used to focus on kitchen-table issues like “good job, good pay,” but that Democrats are now overly concerned with sensitive social issues like transgender rights, while taking “no responsibility at all” for the federal budget during the election.
However, Manchin claimed that Republicans do not accept responsibility for the national debt, and he went on to criticize them for lacking common sense on the topic of weapons.
“They’re too extreme, it’s just common sense,” Manchin remarked. “I’m not going to ban you from buying it, but you’re going to have to show some responsibility.”
“So the Democrats went too far and want to prohibit. The Republican says, “Oh, let the good times roll.” “Let anybody have whatever they want,” Manchin continued. “Just some commonsense things there.”
When asked about new House Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar’s comments that Democrats would have won the election if the party had been more like outgoing caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal and less like Manchin, the senator told Raju, “For someone to say that, they’ve got to be completely insane.”
“The people of America voted,” Manchin stated. “They had the choice to vote for both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Donald Trump, there isn’t much left unsaid. You understand exactly what you are getting. He has made no bones about it.”
He continued: “You might say, ‘That’s too far right.'” OK. If that’s the case, why did they go too far just as Kamala was trying to go back to the middle?
Instead, Manchin attributed Vice President Harris’ defeat on her inability to position herself as a centrist candidate after promoting leftist ideas during her first presidential campaign in 2019.
“Trying to be someone you’re not is difficult,” Manchin explained. He declined to endorse the vice president before the election.
While he evaded questions about who he voted for in November, Manchin said say he loves Trump and gets along well with him. He also stated that during the Army-Navy football game last weekend, he told the president-elect, “I want to help in any way I can.”
“I want you to succeed,” Manchin reportedly told Trump. “Every red-blooded American should want your president to succeed, whether you vote for him or not, whether the same party or not, whether you like him or not.”
Manchin is ready for the third party.
Before leaving the party earlier this year, Manchin pondered entering the presidential race to fight Joe Biden in the Democratic primary, and he mulled running again once the president’s campaign concluded.
However, Manchin told Raju that, while he saw a “avenue” in voters not wanting a rerun of Biden vs. Trump and instead searching for a centrist candidate, he did not believe he had a chance of appearing on the ballot in all 50 states.
Manchin admitted that he had considered running with the centrist organization No Labels, but concluded that “I have no chance of winning if I can’t participate in all 50 states.”
“So why would I put myself through that, or anyone else, and go down in history books as a spoiler?” Manchin added. No Labels eventually abandoned its aspirations to build a third-party presidential unity ticket in the 2024 election.
However, Manchin emphasized the importance of centrist voters, pointing out that there is a demand for moderates in Congress and the White House.
“The centrist-moderate vote determines who will be the president of the United States. And once they arrive, they do not govern in the same way. Neither side does. “They go to their respective corners,” Manchin explained. “So if the center had a voice and had a party that could make both of these — the Democrat, Republican Party — come back, OK, that would be something.”
When Raju asked Manchin if he thought it was time for a third party, he responded yes.
The senator stated that the third party would be dubbed the “American Party” and would include moderate Democrats and Republicans. But he revealed that he would not be its leader.
“I’ll be out there rooting. “I’ll be the best cheerleader they’ve ever had,” Manchin declared.
The outgoing senator will be succeeded by West Virginia Republican Gov. Jim Justice, a flipped seat that will give Republicans control of the chamber, as well as a GOP majority in the House.
When asked if he’ll miss the Senate, Manchin replied, “I don’t think so.”
The senator, who previously famously proclaimed the chamber “sucks,” maintained the opinion but claimed the House “sucks worse.”
“Those poor guys.” “I’m so sorry for them over there,” Manchin remarked. “They are unable to move. They have a dead heat.”
But as he thinks on his political career, Manchin remembers the past 40 years favorably.
“It’s been an honor of a lifetime to serve the people of my great state and to be able to contribute to my great country,” Manchin told the audience.