OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Democrat West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin has sent shockwaves through his party again and it could spell bad news for Senate Majority Leader and New York Sen. Charles Schumer.
Asked on Friday if he intends to campaign for another six-year stint in the Senate Manchin said he was not certain, Fox News reported.
“I have no idea,” he said during an interview to Hoppy Kercheval with WV MetroNews’ Talkline. “I’ll make a decision after [the] 2022 election, November, my term will be up in 2024.”
“I wouldn’t make a decision yet, I wouldn’t make it now,” he said. “Right now I’m trying to do everything I can to try to find some common sense and middle ground, and we all work together.”
This is significant because, even though the senator has been a roadblock for President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan he is still a Democrat, which means that Sen. Schumer gets to be majority leader.
The Senate, right now, is 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats. If that were to change to favor Republicans by even one senator, it would give the Republicans the Majority Leader chair and relegate Sen. Schumer back to minority leader.
He was also asked in the interview if the mounting pressure from activists and others in his party would affect his vote on the Build Back Better agenda.
“Heck no, it doesn’t. It’s not going to change me,” he said, though he did praise the bipartisan infrastructure bill that Congress passed this month.
He said it was “the most transformative bill that I’ve ever worked on, that can do something for everybody in our country.”
He called for more bipartisanship and “common sense” during the interview.
“It’s all about being an American. It’s not about being a Democrat or Republican,: the senator said.
“The purpose of being in a political party is to try to find a solution that fits all the people, Democrats, Republicans, independents,” he said.
Last month the senator admitted that he had talked about leaving he Democrat Party.
The centrist Democrat who has been a thorn in the side of President Joe Biden and his agenda said that he had talked about leaving the party, Reuters reported.
He said he had talked about becoming an independent “if I’m an embarrassment to my Democrat colleagues, my caucus, the president being the leader of the Democratic Party.”
“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. “That’s the only thing that was ever discussed. No one accepted that.”
The West Virginia Democrat did not say which colleagues he talked to about it.
Manchin spoke as Democrats struggled to reach agreement on a Biden social agenda that is likely to be reduced from $3.5 trillion to below $2 trillion, as a result of opposition from Democratic moderates including Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema.
The Senate is split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, with Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, casting the tie-breaking vote, giving Manchin and Sinema powerful sway over the direction of legislation.
As a senator from West Virginia, a conservative state that relies on coal and has largely backed Republican politicians in recent years, Manchin has been at odds with many of his fellow Democrats over key aspects of Biden’s agenda, including its climate change provisions.
The senator’s admission is a change from what he had said when confronted with the rumor that he had talked about leaving the party the day before.
denied rumors he’s thinking of leaving the Democratic party, telling CNN’s Manu Raju that it’s “bullshit.”
“I can’t control rumors and it’s bullshit, bullshit spelled with a B, U, L, L, capital ‘B,’” Manchin told reporters while walking outside of the U.S. Capitol building.
