Senator Joe Manchin threw a few bombs today as he prepares to exit his post, telling CNN’s “Inside Politics” that his former party has become “toxic” for working “to mainstream the extreme” in recent years.
The retiring West Virginia Senator left the Democrats to become an Independent earlier this year. He said that the party is missing the national sentiment, stating that “this country is not going left.
“I am not a Democrat in the form of what the Democratic Party has turned itself into the national brand — absolutely not,” Manchin said. “The brand got so bad. The D-brand has been so maligned from the standpoint of, it’s just, it’s toxic,” said Manchin.
He called on Dem leaders to mull how to get back in step by moving toward the center.
“There was a split. I was never [on] the liberal side of it. I was never [on] the establishment side. So I always had to fight,” he said.
Manchin became a Senator in 2010 and was considered a moderate centrist during his time in the party. This came to the fore with his delays on the vote for what ultimately became the “Inflation Reduction Act,” which was pegged at $740 billion.
He blamed creeping paternalism for his problems with Democrats.
“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,’” Manchin said.
“So the Democrats go too far, want to ban. The Republican says, ‘Oh, let the good times roll. Let anybody have anything they want,’ ” he continued. “Just some common sense things there.”
Manchin added that he would be in favor of another party that would challenge Democrats and Republicans.
“The centrist-moderate vote decides who’s going to be the president of the United States. And when [candidates] get here, they don’t govern that way. Neither side does. They go to their respective corners,” Manchin lamented.
“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.”
