Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema made waves last week when she announced her departure from the Democratic Party —now it sounds like West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin won’t rule out a similar move.
“I’ll look at all of these things. I’ve always looked at all those things, but I have no intention of doing anything right now,” Manchin told CNN reporter Manu Raju, before adding: “Whether I do something later, I can’t tell you what the future is going to bring.”
From The New York Post:
The centrist Manchin has been a member of the Democratic caucus since he was elected to the Senate in 2010. The 75-year-old former West Virginia governor, along with Sinema, have helped derail several pieces of legislation backed by the party’s rank-and-file members, including the Biden administration’s $3.5 trillion Build Back Better bill. Manchin has also opposed efforts by Democrats to end the Senate filibuster rules and has blocked White House appointees.
“I’m not a Washington Democrat, I don’t know what to tell you,” Manchin told reporters. “But I have a lot of friends who aren’t Washington Republicans, and if a Washington independent is, as I said, more comfortable, you know, we’ll see what happens there, we’ll have to look.”
In October 2021, Manchin threatened to switch his affiliation to independent after disagreements with colleagues over the Biden administration’s failed Build Back Better plan.
“I said, me being a moderate centrist Democrat, if that causes you a problem, let me know, and I’d switch to be an independent. But I’d still be caucusing with Democrats,” he said at the time, describing his discussions with fellow Democrats in Congress.
Sinema shared her reasons for leaving the Democrats in an op-ed last week:
“Americans are told that we have only two choices – Democrat or Republican – and that we must subscribe wholesale to policy views the parties hold, views that have been pulled further and further toward the extremes,” Synema wrote in the op-ed.
“Most Arizonans believe this is a false choice, and when I ran for the U.S. House and the Senate, I promised Arizonans something different,” she continued. “I pledged to be independent and work with anyone to achieve lasting results. I committed I would not demonize people I disagreed with, engage in name-calling, or get distracted by political drama.”
“When politicians are more focused on denying the opposition party a victory than they are on improving Americans’ lives, the people who lose are everyday Americans.,” Sinema wrote in the op-ed.
More over at The New York Post:
Sen. Joe Manchin won't rule out leaving the Democratic Party https://t.co/AU6FngCrsL pic.twitter.com/wKryV9Ukq6
— New York Post (@nypost) December 13, 2022
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