Speaking during a one-on-one interview with CNN’s Manu Raju on Sunday, December 22, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, once a Democrat and now an Independent, slammed the political left when commenting on why he left the Democratic Party, saying that it has grown “extreme” and “toxic” because of its ridiculous social views.
Sen. Manchin’s comments on the matter came when Raju asked him, “Do you still consider yourself a Democrat?” Responding, the Senator, who has said he will retire at the end of his current term, told the CNN personality, “I am not a Democrat. In the form of what the Democratic Party has turned itself into, the national brand? Absolutely not. And they know that.”
Continuing, he explained that the Democrats really need to do some introspection and realize why they lost him, given his close connections to the historic Democratic Party. He said, “Here’s what I told them. I said, you ought to figure out how you lost somebody like me. I was born as a Democrat because of my grandfather’s love of FDR. I was a very strong Democrat because of my family’s love of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.”
He further noted that the stat from which he came, West Virginia, was long a Democratic state, with more than a supermajority of voters once siding with that party. He said, “I came through the whole iteration, and then I was a Democrat in West Virginia, and it has always been a 75 to 80% plurality of Democrats, registered Democrats.”
Now, of course, West Virginia is deep red, having become during the Trump years as far as possible from that 80%+ percentage of registered Democrats. Hinting at why, Sen. Manchin noted that he wasn’t a liberal or Establishment Democrat, saying, “But there was a split. I was never in the liberal side of it. I was never in the establishment side. So I always had to fight my way through.”
Raju then asked him directly about why the party is now losing in what used to be a stronghold state. He said, “Is it a shift on social issues?” Manchin told him that the social stances of the party are indeed an issue, saying, “Yeah. The brand got so bad, the “D-brand” has been so maligned from the standpoint of, it’s just it’s toxic.”
Continuing after noting that the Democratic brand is deeply tarnished, he explained what his stances alsways were, saying, “You know, I’ve told them. I said, first of all, as an American, and as a as someone in the Senate, and I’m going to take the constitutional oath, the Constitution that I take very, very, very, very seriously, I’m going to help every human being pursue…happiness in their life, pursuit of happiness.”
"*" indicates required fields
On that point, he added that the problem is the party trying to mainstream certain out of the norm social issues, saying, “I don’t care who they are. I don’t care what color. I don’t care any of the things, who they love…I’m going to make sure you have that opportunity and right to live your life. Just don’t make your life, if it might be on the extremes or in the minority of few, make me believe that’s the norm or make me and my family believe, or my children believe, or this or that. No, I will protect you. Just don’t try to mainstream it. And the Democratic Party, the Washington Democrats, have tried to mainstream the extreme.”
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video