Manchin: Downgrade of America’s credit rating a ‘historic failure’ of political leadership

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who has railed against the nation’s record-high debt, on Thursday called Fitch Ratings’s downgrade of the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+ a “historic failure of leadership by both political parties and the executive branch.” 

Manchin, who is flirting with a presidential run as a third-party candidate backed by the group No Labels, has regularly criticized what he views as the lack of bipartisan cooperation in Washington.

He blamed the nation’s latest credit downgrade on the inability of Republicans and Democrats in Congress and President...