West Virginia Democrat Senator Joe Manchin is up for reelection in 2024.
Rumors have been circulating that Manchin is thinking about making an Independent bid for the White House.
And Joe Manchin said seven words about leaving the Democrat Party that left Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer in a state of panic.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer currently holds a slim 51-49 majority in the Upper Chamber.
West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin is one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the Senate.
Donald Trump won West Virginia by nearly 40-points in the 2020 election.
Manchin is the last Democrat elected to state-wide office in West Virginia and many believe he is the only one who could potentially keep the seat blue.
But Manchin has yet to reveal his reelection plans for 2024, as he is thinking about leaving the Senate to mount an Independent bid for the White House.
During an interview on Thursday with West Virginia radio host Hoppy Kercheval, Manchin made it clear that he is not happy with the current state of the Democrat Party.
“The brand has become so bad — the D brand and R brand,” Manchin said. “In West Virginia, the D brand because it’s [the] national brand,” he continued, before adding that “it’s not the Democrats in West Virginia, it’s the Democrats in Washington.”
“You’ve heard me say a million times I’m not a Washington Democrat,” he said, before admitting that he’s thinking “very seriously” about leaving the Democrat Party.
Kercheval followed up by asking Manchin if he was seriously considering leaving the Democrat Party and switching over to Independent.
“I would think very seriously about that,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about that for quite some time.”
Manchin said he has not made a decision about his political future at the moment.
“I want to make sure that my voice is truly an independent voice,” Manchin said. “When I do speak, I want to be able to speak honestly about basically the extremes of the Democrat and Republican Party that’s harming our nation.”
Manchin issued a callback to the days when the Democrat Party used to be “socially compassionate and fiscally responsible.”
“We could make a big, big splash, and maybe bring the traditional parties of the Democratic and Republican Party [to] what they used to be, back to what they should be today,” he said.
But while Manchin expressed his frustrations with the Democrat Party, he said he would make his decision at a later date.
“I’m thinking seriously,” he said. “For me, I have to have peace of mind, basically.”
When Kercheval pressed Manchin for a decision, he told the popular West Virginia radio host that “when I get ready to make a decision, I’ll come see you.”
