U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, a lifelong Democrat who left the party to become an independent earlier this year, is resigning from the Senate after 15 years in office. Series warning.
“From a perspective, the D brand has been so maligned — it’s just toxic,” Manchin told CNN. He said he couldn’t see himself as part of “what the Democratic Party has become.” Democrats.
Manchin, a wealthy coal tycoon, said the party’s approach had become critical and authoritarian to ordinary Americans, a shift he blamed on progressives.
“They’re basically extending the idea of: ‘Okay, we want to be there to protect you, but we’re going to tell you how you’re supposed to live your life from that point on,'” Manchin told the outlet.
Manchin predicted the country “is not going to turn left,” saying a party that was once focused on basic issues like “good jobs, good wages” is now focused on sensitive social issues — specifically LGBTQ+ rights — and they’re not republican either. Democrats also do not assume responsibility for the federal budget.
The senator also said Republicans lack common sense on gun control issues and fail to take a sensible approach to the chronically high number of mass shootings.
“They’re so extreme — it’s just common sense,” Manchin said of the party. “So the Democrats went too far and wanted to ban it. The Republicans said, ‘Oh, let the good times roll.’ “Let anyone have anything they want.
Asked about comments made by incoming Congressional Progressive Chairman Greg Casar, Manchin responded: “If someone like progressive congresswoman Pramila Jayapal ) Then the Democrats will win the election.
The senator also blamed Kamala Harris’s loss of the White House election to Donald Trump in November on her efforts to support progressive causes during the 2019 campaign for the Democratic nomination. Cast yourself as the moderate candidate.
“It’s hard if you try to be someone else,” Manchin noted. The senator has not publicly endorsed Harris’ campaign. On Sunday, he declined to say which candidate he voted for in November but said he liked the president-elect and recently told him “I want to help in any way I can” and wanted him to succeed.
“Every red-blooded American should want your president to succeed, whether you voted for him or not, whether you’re in the same party or not, whether you like him or not,” Manchin added.
But he also said that he believed it was time to establish a third party in the United States called the “American Party” as the centerpiece of the moderate Democrats and Republicans.
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“The votes of moderates in the center determine who will be president of the United States. When they get here, they’re not going to govern that way. Neither side. They go to their corners,” Manchin said.
“If the center has a voice and there’s a party that can bring both of those parties — Democrats, Republicans — back, well, that would be amazing.”
Speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Manchin said Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson will have to “recognize that this is the worst-performing Congress in the history of our country.”
Turmoil during the last session led to a long leadership battle that left Republicans “in a difficult position” [they] Nothing can be gained”. He also criticized the party for failing to engage with Democrats and “continue to have a bipartisan majority.”
Manchin predicted that Trump “will understand his role as president better now than when he first won in 2016.”
“He’s got some experience on his staff,” Manchin added. “He understands the process and the power that he has now.”