Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) didn’t hold back on his feelings on the Democratic Party — the party he once belonged — calling it the “D-brand.”
Manchin, who is set to retire at the end of his term, spoke about his disgust for the Democratic Party in an interview with CNN’s Manu Raju, Mediaite reported.
“Do you still consider yourself a Democrat?” Raju asked Manchin.
“I am not a Democrat. In the form of what the Democratic Party has turned itself into, the national brand?” the lawmaker said. “Absolutely not. And they know that.”
Manchin, 77, spoke about being a lifelong Democrat, who became an independent this year.
“Here’s what I told them. I said, you ought to figure out how you lost somebody like me,” Manchin said. “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. 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.”
“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,” he said.
Manchin explained the Democratic Party’s “brand” has changed.
“The brand got so bad, the ‘D-brand’ has been so maligned from the standpoint of, it’s just it’s toxic. And the D-brand is basically this,” he said. “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.
Manchin added: “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,” he added.
Raju also read a quote from Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) about the election.
“OK, this is from the incoming chair of the House Progressive Caucus,” Raju started. “He says, ‘If the Democratic Party was a little more like Chairwoman Jayapal and a little less … like Joe Manchin, I think we would have won this election.”
“They gotta be nuts! For someone to say that, they’ve got to be completely insane!” Manchin responded.
