Senator Joe Manchin (I-WV) said Sunday on CNN’s “Inside Politics” that he was no longer a Democrat because the party’s brand had become “toxic.” Host Manu Raju asked, “Do you still consider yourself a Democrat?” Manchin said, “I am not a Democrat. In a form of what? What the Democratic Party has turned itself into the national brand? Absolutely not. And they know that. There are good people on both sides.”
He continued, “The brand got so bad the D brand has been so maligned from the standpoint of… It’s just toxic, and the D brand is basically this. You know, I’ve told them. I said, first of all, as an American and as someone in the Senate, I’m going to take the constitutional oath, the Constitution that I take very, very, very, very seriously.”
Manchin added, “I’m going to help every human being pursue…the pursuit, the happiness life in their life, pursuit of happiness. I don’t care who they are. I don’t care what color. I don’t care about any of the things they love, and they do it. And that’s you. And 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 a 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.”
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Manchin, a former governor of his home state of West Virginia, became an Independent during Joe Biden’s presidency, along with also-retiring former Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. Both earned the wrath of their party colleagues when they refused to go along with extreme measures such as massive spending bills and eliminating the filibuster. And last week, the pair teamed up with Republicans in a 50-49 cloture vote, effectively halting President Joe Biden’s renomination of Lauren McFerran as chairwoman of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) did not participate in the vote due to scheduled orthopedic surgery, a situation GOP leaders were aware of in advance, according to Axios. The defeat leaves Democrats without a majority on the five-member NLRB until at least 2026, as President-elect Donald Trump assumes office and Republicans regain control of the Senate, POLITICO reported. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, who has voiced concerns about alleged NLRB favoritism toward union organizers in elections, praised the vote blocking McFerran’s renomination.
“This NLRB seat should be filled by President Trump and the new incoming Senate. Not a historically unpopular president and a Senate Democrat Majority that has lost its mandate to govern,” Cassidy said. He added: “I am glad the Senate rejected Democrats’ partisan attempt to deny President Trump the opportunity to choose his own nominees and enact a pro-America, pro-worker agenda with the mandate he has from the American people.”
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