Senator Bernie Sanders, candidate for President under the Democrat banner, said in an interview with CNBC that Joe Manchin would support his socialist agenda. Manchin says ehhhh, not so much.
“Wouldn’t be Bernie,” he said when asked who he’d voted for in a Bernie v Trump matchup during an interview with Neal Cavuto on Fox News. When pressed on if he’d vote for Trump he shrugged the question stating only “let’s just say I’m going to make decisions based on what’s best for my country and my state.”
He also said he would “absolutely not” support Bernie’s agenda. “Bernie keeps saying medicare-for-all, I say Bernie we can’t even pay for medicare-for-some!”
Bernie, of course, faces criticism frequently because he only identifies as a democrat when he needs to run for President. He is one of two ‘independent’ Senators in DC, the other being Angus King from Maine. Both of them vote constantly with the Democrat caucus.
Joe Manchin, on the other hand, represents West Virginia. He supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, but regretted it. Clinton was fond of criticizing the coal industry, which makes up a large portion of the WV economy.
Manchin said, “Washington Democrats are making it more difficult for me to be a West Virginia Democrat” and he wishes he had not backed Clinton against Trump. During the campaign, Clinton said as president she would put coal miners and coal companies out of business.
USA Today
Manchin, whose state has long relied on coal jobs, almost pulled his support for Clinton after that remark, he told Politico. But he stuck with her.
Manchin was one of three Democrats to vote to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. He was the only Democrat to vote for Kavanaugh’s confirmation. He showed more courage than Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, who voted ‘present.’
West Virginia re-elected Manchin by a margin of roughly 28,000 votes, or 3.3 percentage points in 2018.