Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., argued Thursday morning that President Obama’s move to commute the sentence of Chelsea Manning shows he didn’t take “seriously” the espionage charges against the former Army soldier.
“I thought it was wrong, I really did,” Manchin said of the commutation of Manning’s sentence. Manning will serve about seven years instead of the full 35-year sentence.
President Obama argued Wednesday that Manning served enough time for leaking sensitive information to WikiLeaks. But Manchin disagreed.
.@Sen_JoeManchin on Obama’s commutation of Chelsea Manning: “I thought it was wrong. I really did.” https://t.co/Jq5U2mIpqJ
— New Day (@NewDay) January 19, 2017
“Well, I guess basically we didn’t take it seriously, and we need to take it seriously,” he said.
“I’m sorry, I’m just not there,” he added. “Because the Intelligence Community, I trust them, I believe in them, and they’re giving us good information. And they do their job, and they give it to us to do our job.”
“I can tell you right now, this does concern me,” Manchin said. “I’m not giving a green light to anyone who wants to do harm to this country.”
Manning was known as Bradley Manning at the time the charges were brought, but later sought gender reassignment treatment and insisted on being called Chelsea Manning.
