It looks like Joe Manchin’s desperate attempts to link himself to President Trump, even while voting against every single one of the President’s agenda items, have backfired. In an interview with the New York Times, President Trump ripped into Manchin for being all talk and no action, saying:
“Joe’s a nice guy. But he talks. But he doesn’t do anything. He doesn’t do. ‘Hey, let’s get together, let’s do bipartisan.’ I say, ‘Good, let’s go.’ Then you don’t hear from him again. I like Joe. You know, it’s like he’s the great centrist. But he’s really not a centrist. And I think the people of West Virginia will see that.”
President Trump souring on Manchin and seeing through his phony bipartisanship will be a real problem for the Democratic Senator in 2018. Manchin has already voted against President Trump’s health care and tax cut bills, and will be hard-pressed to get back in the President’s good graces before next year’s election.
“President Trump has exposed Joe Manchin for what he really is – a phony centrist who will always vote with Washington Democrats when it really matters,” said NRSC Spokesman Bob Salera. “West Virginians voted for President Trump by a 42-point margin last year, and Manchin’s refusal to work across the aisle on anything of substance will be devastating to his reelection chances.”