Sen. Joe Manchin said he cannot fathom the possibility that tens of millions of people were fearful or angry enough with the Democratic Party to vote for President Trump.
The centrist Democrat from West Virginia, who announced earlier this month he would not support Democratic efforts to end the legislative filibuster or pack the Supreme Court, talked to the New York Times about his thoughts on the 2020 election.
“I just can’t believe that 72 million people were either that mad or that scared of the Democrat Party to vote for what I consider a very flawed individual. Here’s a person who lost 230,000 lives under his watch, basically denounced the science completely because it might hurt him politically, has a lack of compassion or empathy for humans, and denigrates anybody and everybody that does not agree with him. How 72 million people could still walk in and say, ‘Yeah, it’s better than that,’ I just can’t figure it out,” Manchin said. “That was a sobering thing for me. My state got wiped out this election. So I would say, I’m just looking at myself, I have not been good at my message. I know why I’m a Democrat. And I know that I’ve never seen the Democrat Party forsake anybody.”
Trump and President-Elect Joe Biden each set records in the 2020 election. Trump received the most votes out of any Republican to run in the general election, garnering nearly 74 million votes in the latest count, while Biden received more votes than any other presidential candidate in history. Biden’s tally currently hovers above 80 millions votes, according to the Associated Press.
When asked why rural areas voted Republican, Manchin cited what his own constituents told him. He said voters complained about liberal voices in Washington, D.C., who voiced support for defunding police and did not condemn riots this summer. “There’s not a member in the Democratic caucus that condones any of this violence or riots or looting — none,” he added.
“I just would hope that people would start looking at the person that they’re voting for and not the party they belong to. A Democrat who’s a moderate-conservative like myself is much needed to bring other people to that moderate position,” Manchin continued.
Manchin also explained his rationale behind opposing his party’s efforts to end the Senate filibuster. “If we can’t come together to help America, God help us. If you’ve got to blow up the Senate to do the right thing, then we’ve got the wrong people in the Senate, or we have people that won’t talk to each other,” Manchin said.
Manchin said he was confident that New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who may remain as the Senate minority leader should Republicans win the Senate runoff elections in Georgia, will “talk to anybody and everybody” to reach a compromise, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
