Democrat Joe Manchin Said He Would Defect To Republican Party If John Thune Was Leader Not Mitch McConnell New Book Claims
Democrat Senator Joe Manchin was so annoyed with Vice President Kamala Harris for going on television in West Virginia to try to pressure him to vote for the boondoggle Build Back Better (which would have poured gasoline on our inflation problem) that he almost left the Dem Party.
Republicans moved quickly to take advantage of Kamala’s bumbling and Manchin’s anger and asked him to switch parties after her TV interview. We have seen some extraordinary incompetence from President Joe Biden and his team but if they lost control of the Senate because of Kamala interfering with Manchin and the West Virginia voters they would instantly become the worst admin in history.
The book, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns will be released on May 3, 2021.
The Daily Mail received a copy of the book:
Shortly after that interview, Republican Senators Thune, Susan Collins of Maine and Rob Portman of Ohio all tried to sway Manchin to defect and join the GOP.
‘John, he said, if you were the leader I would do it,’ Manchin said of Senator Thune during a dinner at Bistro Cacao on February 1, 2021 with the trio, according to the book.
One of Thune’s approaches last year was trying to sway Manchin to choose a middle-of-the-line option – become an independent senator and caucus with the GOP.
They also indicated that there would be rewards for defecting from Democrats, the book notes, the likes of which included chairing a committee and helping with campaigning and fundraising.
But Manchin said he would not defect, especially after the White House held a meeting with him before Republicans were able to get to him with their proposal.
Manchin said he had a meeting at the White House where Biden expressed regret over deploying Harris to West Virginia and, at one point, asked everyone to leave the room and told the senator regarding the American rescue plan:
‘Joe, you’re my friend, I’ll never ask you to vote against your conscience. I’ll never ask you to do anything you’re uncomfortable doing.’
The book notes: ‘Manchin believed him. He was not going to become a Republican.’
Democrat Joe Manchin said he would defect to GOP IF John Thune were leader, book reveals https://t.co/RZeLKTrQKi
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) April 28, 2022
As Putin continues to use energy as a weapon in his war on Ukraine, it is clear that we must utilize our abundant natural resources to backfill our NATO allies while continuing to innovate to drive global emissions down. https://t.co/BFRFZI86xa
— Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) April 26, 2022