Manchin sidesteps questions on leaving Democratic Party: ‘I’ll let you know later’

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Sunday sidestepped questions about whether he’d leave the Democratic Party after being asked about his comments regarding his serving in the Senate as an “independent voice.”

Manchin avoided saying outright if he’d join fellow centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), who shocked Washington earlier this month by announcing that she would become an Independent.

The West Virginia Democrat instead criticized hyperpartisanship in Congress and said he would wait and see how the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the Inflation Reduction Act play out before making a decision about his affiliation.  

“If people are trying to stop something from doing so much good because of politics, thinking somebody else will get credit for it, let’s see how that plays out. And then I’ll let you know later what I decide to do,” Manchin told moderator Margaret Brennan on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“They know how independent I am,” Manchin said of Democrats.

“The D does not saddle me to everything the Democrats want to do is what’s right. I don’t think the Democrats have all the answers. I don’t think the Republicans are always wrong,” he said.  

Brennan was asking Manchin about a statement he released last week in which he criticized a permitting reform measure that he had championed that failed to advance in the National Defense Authorization Act.