Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., offered a roundabout condemnation Wednesday when asked whether he thought defeated Republican West Virginia Senate candidate Don Blankenship’s campaign ads were racist.
“I don’t know. I’d like to think that wasn’t. The terms he used and how he used them, I would never take that course,” Manchin said in an interview with MSNBC.
But Manchin then added how Blankenship tried to explain the language he used in his ads attacking Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and his wife Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao in the context of his “upbringing, or basically the culture where he comes from.”
“It’s not how we talk where I come from in West Virginia, and Don’s on that Kentucky-West Virginia border. I don’t know, I can’t really say, I have not heard that before,” Manchin said.
“Italian-Americans, Chinese-Americans, Japanese-Americans, you know we’re all ethnic of some derivative, but the way it was said it taken in a connotation that might not have been flattering for a person who’s a proud American no matter what their descent may be,” he continued.
Sen Manchin’s answer to @Kasie about whether Don Blankenship’s ads were racist was…..interesting. pic.twitter.com/gSS6Gh6zRI
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) May 9, 2018
Blankenship approved ads in which he referred to McConnell as “Cocaine Mitch” and Chao’s family as “China people.”
In a separate interview on Fox News, Manchin said he didn’t know whether Blankenship would throw his support behind him or GOP West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who prevailed over Blankenship on Tuesday.
“I have no control over that whatsoever, and I would say Don has to make his decision what he’s comfortable with,” he said.
Morrisey will go head-to-head with Manchin in the general election on Nov. 6.
