While Manchin said he agreed President Biden has been “wrong on the border,” the collapse of the bill revealed something else to him.
“I always believed that we could … legislate through a crisis. We’d come together for a crisis,” Manchin said during in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “Well, guess what? We have a crisis. The border is a crisis.”
“And I saw my friends walk away, when they were determined to pass a border security. And they were on board three days before that,” he added. “And with Donald Trump, coming as hard as he came at them, and they cowered down and walked away? I said, ‘We’re not fixing anything in Washington.’”
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In the same interview, the West Virginia senator said he is not endorsing a White House candidate just yet, claiming his focus remains on the center.
“The sensible reasonable middle of this country makes up 55 percent to 60 percent of the population in voting, a tremendous voting bloc,” he said. “But they feel homeless right now.”
