西弗吉尼亚州查尔斯顿西弗吉尼亚州参议员乔·曼钦(Joe Manchin)周三表示，如果全国选民给前总统唐纳德·特朗普白宫的另一个任期，“他将摧毁美国的民主。”
曼钦的家乡州选民在过去两届总统选举中压倒性地支持特朗普选举在猜测曼钦本人可能正在考虑第三方竞选总统之际，美国总统奥巴马在与西弗吉尼亚州记者的新闻电话会议上发表了上述评论。
这位温和的西弗吉尼亚州民主党人周三表示，他永远不想成为一个为其他候选人当选做出贡献的“搅局者”。但是他说为了拯救这个国家，他会尽自己所能。
“如果他们说，‘你是唯一能做这件事的人’，我会尽我所能来拯救这个国家，”他说。
曼钦对两党制目前的运作方式措辞严厉。
他说:“这些党派已经接管了他们把我们武器化来对抗对方的局面。”。“这是错误的。”
但曼钦对特朗普保留了最严厉的评论，特朗普在2016年和2020年赢得了西弗吉尼亚州55个县的每一个县，使其成为前总统最忠诚的州之一。曼钦表示，再给特朗普一个任期将是“危险的”。
“你不能每次演讲时都有这种发自内心的仇恨，诋毁美国人，”他说。“唯一好的美国人是喜欢你和支持你的人;唯一公平的选举是你赢得的选举;唯一的法律适用于每个人，除了你。”
曼钦周三还批评了民主党总统拜登，称他在任期内被推得太左了。
在曼钦上周宣布他决定不寻求连任后，特朗普在社交媒体上承认，他支持现任西弗吉尼亚州州长明年竞选曼钦的参议员席位，从而将他推出了竞选。
“因为我支持西弗吉尼亚州的大法官吉姆·贾斯蒂斯竞选美国参议员，而且他已经遥遥领先，所以民主党人乔·曼钦决定不寻求连任。大吉姆看起来不错!”这位前总统在他的真实社交网站上说。
曼钦谴责特朗普不到一周前，这位参议员宣布，由于对美国政坛的政治分歧感到失望，他不会寻求连任。在2010年当选参议员之前，他曾是州议员、国务卿和一度深蓝的西弗吉尼亚州州长。
作为西弗吉尼亚州唯一剩下的民主党全州公职人员，曼钦将很难连任，可能会与共和党美国众议员亚历克斯·穆尼(Alex Mooney)或州长吉姆·贾斯蒂斯(Jim Justice)竞争，两人都是特朗普的忠实支持者。
自从他决定下周不竞选连任以来，政治权威人士猜测，曼钦可能会作为一名没有标签的候选人，关注潜在的总统竞选。曼钦长期以来一直与没有标签的公司保持友好，该公司已经开始与潜在的总统候选人进行私下交谈，曼钦是其中之一。
一个推动曼钦与退休的犹他州参议员米特罗姆尼合作，寻求第三方总统竞选的团体独立提交了文件，与联邦选举委员会组建了一个正式的草案委员会，就在同一天，曼钦宣布他不会争夺重返参议院。
曼钦说，他尚未就下一步行动做出任何决定，但他重申了自己的誓言，要走遍全国，以衡量人们对中间派政治运动的兴趣。
“我已经尽我所能试图改变华盛顿的政治机能障碍和政治分歧，我得出的结论是，这在华盛顿是做不到的，”他说。
曼钦发表上述言论的前一天，一场国会听证会演变成了一名共和党参议员和一名证人之间的愤怒对抗，俄克拉荷马州参议员马克韦恩·马林(Markwayne Mullin)向国际卡车司机兄弟会(International Brotherhood of teams ters)主席肖恩·奥布莱恩(Sean O'Brien)发起了挑战。
曼钦表示，作为国会议员，他对这种暴躁的交流感到“羞愧”，并将其视为极端主义在美国政治体系中崛起的最新例子。他说，特朗普为此做出了贡献，并利用了这一点。
“从唐纳德·特朗普的角度来看，今天政治舞台上的正常程序是攻击、攻击、攻击、影射，然后基本上是煽动仇恨、喷涌、辱骂你，想要得到回应，想要战斗，”他说。“这不是我们是谁。我们没有像那样成为这个国家。”
曼钦说，当特朗普在2016年当选时，他试图与他合作，但总统的政治方法违背了“我所理解的我们应该在公共服务中做的每一件事。”
“你不能说，‘我要拿起世界上最有权力的办公室，用它来报复，’”他说。
曼钦在分歧严重的参议院中发挥了关键作用，帮助通过了两党基础设施法，并起草了通货膨胀削减法案，该法案降低了处方药价格，提供了医疗补贴，并大力投资于清洁能源项目，以及支持碳封存和存储以及其他支持化石燃料行业的项目。
他说，这是美国历史上最富有成效的国会之一，因为民主党人和共和党人被迫合作。
“有些人认为我有这种能力，对此感到不安。他说:“我说，‘我没有比其他任何参议员更大的权力。“我想不出为什么你们不利用它来为我们的国家和我们所代表的州做些有益的事情。”
曼钦是最后一个在华盛顿倡导煤炭利益的强大的西弗吉尼亚州民主党人，随着进步党接受清洁能源和远离化石燃料的过渡，这一点已经变得站不住脚。
他说，当他第一次来到参议院时，有人问他，“西弗吉尼亚州的民主党人怎么了?”
“我说，‘他们想知道华盛顿民主党人出了什么事。’”曼钦说西弗吉尼亚州的民主党人仍然努力工作，他们开采煤炭，制造钢铁，建造枪支和船只，他们付出了他们的一切，为自由事业流了更多的血，失去了比大多数州更多的生命，但突然之间，我们不够好，不够环保，不够干净或不够聪明。他们厌倦了。"
Manchin says Trump would destroy US democracy if he wins second term as president
CHARLESTON, W.Va. --West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, days removed from announcing he won't seek reelection, said Wednesday that if the nation's voters give former PresidentDonald Trumpanother term in the White House, “he will destroy democracy in America.”
Manchin, whose home state voters overwhelmingly backed Trump in the last two presidentialelections, made the comment on a press call with West Virginia-based reporters amid speculation that Manchin himself might be weighing a third-party run for president.
The moderate West Virginia Democrat said Wednesday that he would never want to be a “spoiler” who contributed to getting any other candidate elected. But he said he would do what he had to in order to save the country.
“If they said, ‘You’re the only person to do it,' I’ll do whatever I can to save this nation,” he said.
Manchin had harsh words for how the two-party system is currently functioning.
“These parties have taken over to where they weaponized us against each other," he said. “And that's wrong.”
But Manchin reserved his harshest comments for Trump, who won every one of West Virginia’s 55 counties in both 2016 and 2020, making it one of the former president’s most loyal states. Manchin said it would be “dangerous” to give Trump another term.
“You can’t have this visceral hatred spewing out of every time you give a speech, denigrating Americans,” he said. “And the only good American is the one that likes you and supports you; the only fair election is the one you win; the only laws pertain to everybody but you.”
Manchin also critiqued Democratic President Joe Biden on Wednesday, saying he has been pushed too far to the left during his term in office.
After Manchin announced his decision last week not to seek another term, Trump took to social media to take credit for nudging him out of the race by endorsing the current West Virginia governor's bid for Manchin's Senate seat next year.
“Because I Endorsed Big Jim Justice of West Virginia for the U.S. Senate, and he has taken a commanding lead, Democrat Joe Manchin has decided not to seek re-election. Looking good for Big Jim!” the former president said on his Truth Social internet site.
Manchin's condemnation of Trump came less than a week after the senator, who was a state lawmaker, secretary of state and governor of once-deep-blue West Virginia before being elected to the Senate in 2010, announced he would not pursue another term because of frustration with the political divide in U.S. politics.
Manchin would have had a difficult path to reelection as the only remaining Democratic statewide officeholder in West Virginia, likely running against either GOP U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney or Gov. Jim Justice, both loyal Trump supporters.
Since his decision not to run for reelection next week, political pundits have speculated that Manchin might be eyeing a potential presidential run as a candidate with No Labels. Manchin has long been friendly with No Labels, which has already begun holding private conversations with potential presidential nominees, Manchin among them.
A group pushing for Manchin to partner with retiring Utah Sen. Mitt Romney to seek a third-party presidential bid independently filed paperwork to form a formal draft committee with the Federal Election Commission on the same day Manchin announced he wouldn't vie to return to the Senate.
Manchin said he has yet to make any decision about his next steps, but repeated his vow to travel the country to gauge interest in a centrist political movement.
“I’ve done everything I can to try to change the political dysfunction and political divisions that we have in Washington, and I’ve come to the conclusion, it can’t be done here in Washington," he said.
Manchin's remarks came a day after a congressional hearing devolved into an angry confrontation between a Republican senator and a witness in which Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma challenged Sean O’Brien, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, to a fight.
Manchin said he was “ashamed” of the testy exchange as a member of Congress and cited it as the latest example of the rise of extremism in the U.S. political system. He said Trump has contributed to and taken advantage of that.
“The normal procedures in the political arena today, from Donald Trump’s point of view, is attack, attack, attack, insinuate, and then basically invigorate hatred, spew, call you names, wants to get a reaction, wants a fight,” he said. “It’s not who we are. We didn’t become this country like that.”
Manchin said when Trump was elected in 2016, he tried to work with him, but that the president's approach to politics goes against “every grain I understood of what we’re supposed to do in public service.”
“You can’t say, ‘I’m going to take the most powerful office in the world and use it for vengeful purposes,’” he said.
Manchin has played a key role in the closely divided Senate, helping to pass the bipartisan infrastructure law and crafting the inflation reduction act, which lowered prescription drug prices, provided health care subsidies and invested heavily in clean energy projects, as well as embracing support for carbon sequestration and storage and other projects to support the fossil fuel industry.
He said it had been one of the most productive congresses in U.S. history because Democrats and Republicans were forced to work together.
“There were people upset thinking I had this power. I said, ‘I don’t have any more power than any of the other senators,’" he said. "I can’t figure out why you all won't use it to do something good for our country and our states we represent.”
Manchin is the last in a line of powerful West Virginia Democrats who advocated for coal interests in Washington, something that has become untenable as the progressive party has embraced clean energy and the transition away from fossil fuels.
He said when he first came to the Senate, he was asked, “What happened to the West Virginia Democrat?”
“I said, ‘They want to know what happened to the Washington Democrat,'’' Manchin said. ”The West Virginia Democrats still worked hard, they mined the coal, made the steel, built the guns and ships, they gave everything they have, shed more blood, lost more lives for the cause of freedom than most any state, but all of a sudden, we’re not good enough, green enough, clean enough or smart enough. And they got sick and tired of it."
