CNBC’s Joe Kernen pressed Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin on Monday about whether or not his party has abandoned him and its principles.
“You go so far as to say, you know, ‘Let’s have the interest of the country in mind, not interests of extremists in our party,'” Kernen began. “That’s a loaded point that you’re making there, and there are, I guess, a lot of Republicans — that has been the criticism, that President Biden is not the President Biden that you would have known when he was a senator … that he is mainly appeasing extreme- that side, that wing of the party with a lot of the things he’s done.”
“I think the president knows that I think that he’s been pulled too far left in some of the decisions,” Manchin said. “Joe, you cannot run this country from the extremes. I think the extreme right, the tea party, has taken it too far to the right, the grand ol’ party isn’t quite as grand as she was at one time, and the Democratic Party … that I grew up with, and what I believed in, is not that party is today, we’ve been extreme-”
“Are you still a Democrat, senator?” Kernen asked.
“Did you leave the Democratic Party or did they leave you?” @JoeSquawk asks @Sen_JoeManchin: pic.twitter.com/RFhtcdM8dn
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) April 3, 2023
“I’m not a Washington Democrat, and I’ve got a lot of friends at home-” Manchin said before Kernen interjected.
“Did you leave the Democratic Party or did they leave you?” (RELATED: ‘Unprecedented’: Biden Admin Delays Releasing Offshore Oil And Gas Leasing Plan)
“I think, basically, both parties have left our tradition of what we were and what we have been and how we’ve built this great country, we’ve all been able to identify a problem. We have different methods of solving that problem, but we could always come back to the reason, responsible, sensible middle. Now all of a sudden, there is no reasonable, responsible, sensible middle with the extremes of the party, both Democrat and Republican.”
“I think there’s people like myself that are just tired and fed up. They can’t take any more, Joe, they’re worn out everyday at some crisis,” Manchin continued.
Manchin has been outspoken of the Biden administration on numerous occasions, recently tanking some of Biden’s nominees. Manchin opposed Gigi Sohn, whom Biden nominated to chair the FCC before Sohn withdrew her nomination.