Former West Virginia Democrat Senator Joe Manchin spent most of his career in Congress beating his chest in front of TV cameras about his “moderate” identity while toeing the party line on virtually every vote. But his latest book nonetheless takes Democrats to task for their lurch to the left and provides some embarrassing new details about the Biden administration and the state of the party.
Dead Center, which came out in mid-September, offers new glimpses into Manchin’s time as a senator from 2010 to 2025. He is reportedly considering a third-party presidential run in 2028 after flirting with the idea in 2024, the same year he switched his affiliation to “Independent.”
In the book, Manchin touts how he criticized former President Joe Biden’s massive $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan spending spree in 2021. “Manchin recalled that he once called Biden ‘reckless’ to his face over the American Rescue Plan negotiations, telling Biden that he was ‘sending a f–king check to everyone,’” according to a copy of the book obtained by Punchbowl News.
The former senator also criticizes then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for attempting to get rid of the filibuster in 2022. The filibuster allows the minority party to block most legislation unless 60 senators vote to move forward on a bill, a maneuver known as invoking cloture.
“Schumer wasn’t interested in debate or persuasion. He wanted a spectacle. He wanted a vote he could weaponize, a moment he could broadcast to the radical left to prove his loyalty,” Manchin wrote. “This wasn’t about governing or principle. It was about power.”
Manchin also criticizes DEI in the book. “When the party pushes hard on woke ideology, DEI mandates, and other social agendas, it creates unnecessary divisions, alienates everyday citizens, and moves us further away from the commonsense middle ground where most Americans actually live their lives,” he writes.
Elsewhere, he argues that Democrats have “increasingly shifted toward ideological purity tests” instead of welcoming “diverse perspectives,” which he claims the party once did.
He also claims that he does not change his political views just because of outside pressure. “My principles don’t swing with the political winds,” he wrote, according to the New York Times. “I am pretty simple in my views. I’m fiscally responsible and socially compassionate.”
But while the book contains plenty of material for conservatives to gloat over, it shouldn’t be forgotten that this is nothing new from Manchin, who clearly still has political aspirations. Amid all the self-aggrandizing, Manchin conveniently leaves out that he was a reliable vote for Democrats on all but a few votes, including on legislation that directly contradicted the best interests of his constituents and far-left Biden administration appointees.
For instance, Manchin voted to confirm key Biden appointees at the Department of the Interior and the Department of Energy – two agencies that were weaponized against West Virginia’s all-important coal industry during Biden’s term.
As Paul Waldman writes for MSNBC of Manchin, “his I’m-just-a-small-town-West-Virginia-boy act conceals an ambitious politician who was skilled at maximizing his own influence.”
“In fairness, Manchin stayed a mostly-loyal Democrat to the end, even after he officially changed his registration to Independent in 2024,” Waldman continues. “He voted to confirm the vast majority of Joe Biden’s judicial and executive branch nominees, he signed on to most of Biden’s signature bills in the end and he secured his share of federal funding for his constituents, all of which is to his credit.”
Moreover, while Manchin now criticizes his own party for its embrace of DEI, he was perfectly content using it as a primary reason to support Biden’s Interior Secretary nominee Deb Haaland. “230 years after George Washington assembled his first Cabinet, it is long past time to have a Native American woman at the table,” Manchin said in 2021, explaining his vote to confirm.
Haaland would go on to carry out Biden’s destructive and costly war on oil and gas, which included shutting off 41 million acres of federal lands for energy exploration, according to the Washington Free Beacon. Her “diverse” identity as a Native American woman also played into her decision to block seven oil and gas leases in the Arctic Ocean based on “Indigenous knowledge.” West Virginians and all Americans paid for these actions at the gas pump and in higher energy costs across the board.
On another major issue of the day, abortion, Manchin also threw himself directly into the “political winds.”
While proclaiming himself “pro-life,” he could never quite decide if taxpayers should subsidize Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion vendor. As detailed by Axios in 2017, Manchin walked a “tightrope on Planned Parenthood.” This included flip-flopping on whether to defund Planned Parenthood.
Even during his final years in the Senate, Manchin was still trying to say he was “pro-life” while criticizing the Dobbs v. Jackson 2022 Supreme Court decision that returned the issue of abortion to legislators and the people. Even though constitutional scholars on the left and the right agreed that the Supreme Court had no constitutional authority to set limits on the states’ ability to regulate abortion, Manchin wrote that he was “deeply disappointed” by the Dobbs decision.
By 2024, Manchin was backing the radical “Reproductive Freedom for All Act” that would have effectively prohibited any meaningful pro-life protections for unborn babies.
He has also walked back his opposition to Obamacare. In 2010, when patriotic Tea Party members correctly opposed the massive overreach into the health care system, then-Governor Manchin echoed similar opposition. Now, years later, when it’s become entrenched in our welfare system, he is supportive, even voting to extend costly Obamacare subsidies.
The gentleman from West Virginia may paint himself as a centrist maverick in “Dead Center,” but his record tells a different story.
Despite his rhetoric, he consistently aligned with the Democrat Party’s left-wing priorities – backing DEI, supporting the killing of unborn babies, and embracing Obamacare. Americans should see through this carefully crafted facade.
Matt Lamb is a contributor for AMAC Newsline and an associate editor for The College Fix. He previously worked for Students for Life of America, Students for Life Action, and Turning Point USA. He previously interned for Open the Books. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Examiner, The Federalist, LifeSiteNews, Human Life Review, Headline USA, and other outlets. The opinions expressed are his own. Follow him @mattlamb22 on X.
Bottom Line: Don’t put your money on Joe Manchin, he definitely can’t be trusted to lead this nation, but he can help in continuing to divide the Democrats.
He is still a democrat and speaks with forked tounge. Can’t be trusted.
Just another B S politician trying to sell a book. If he really cared about what was right for our country and citizens, he would have spoken up when it counted instead of spewing the party speak/agenda. JMO
Manchin always seemed like a descent enough guy. But he was one of the last democrats left over in a red state. Once his state voted in overwhelming majorities for Trump in 2016 and 2020 Manchin knew his days were numbered. As the article said he talked a big show of moderacy but ultimately voted in lock step with the Dems. He is right in that his party’s embrace of goofy less than 1% weird crap like men in women’s bathrooms, men in women’s sports, transgender nonsense, DEI, etc was ultimately the downfall of the Rats. MAGA
As noted, Manchin professed to have independent views, but in actions, he voted almost 1005 with the policies of the Democrats. Like most politicians it is all about $$$ and power. If he rebuffed the will of Schumer, he could have been threatened to be primaried, and/or be removed from some of his key committees.
Manchin could have said NO and taken punishment by the Democrats….but he was too weak to do so.
Don’t trust him. What in the heck does ‘socially compassionate’ even mean? LOL
I will not buy his book or his fabrications about who he was in Congress.
As far I am concerned, Joe Manchin is an embarrassment, he is selective on which parts of the Constitution that he will protect and defend. He is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He needs to read and try to understand the Constitution.
He is just another suck-up liberal.
Weasel Joe!
God Bless America!
This book will be a flop in my opinion, nothing new here. We have or can get Joe’s voting record, and he never let the libs down. Too late, he writes a book. We knew all along how the current democrat party seems to hate our way of life and wish to divide us.DEI is an insult to the so called benefits of it. Just one way to divide us.
All the goody-goody talk about himself reminds me of reading Obama’s self aggrandizing book about himself. Both books should be read around the campfire so you can throw them in when the flame gets low…..that’s about their worth. Manchin says he criticized Biden, but in the end he voted along with all the other far left-wingers when it came to abortion, DEI, outlandish spending, etc., etc. Let’s call a spade a spade……….and in this case he buried himself already so don’t even bother running for presidency anytime soon!
Warning – long rant! He joins many politicians with his “support average people” talk, but then do actions that belie that ethic. I wish I understood these Progressives with their lies, manipulations, and votes AGAINST average people and unborn babies. They have no coherent message except HATE TRUMP, AVERAGE PEOPLE WILL LOVE BEING COMMUNIST, and their screaming at ANYONE who disagrees with them. Their evil rhetoric is so damaging in this country, they actually got a modern day prophet killed (Charlie Kirk). Joe Manchin is proof that you can never trust a Democrat. Can’t even trust our Republican Reps and Senators. Finally? I do not understand how these screaming babies people all over the country are voted into office, KEEP their positions. Why do voting people NOT understand these evil beings invading our government only want chaos, power and money. Soon, we will have a Communist running NYC!!! How does that happen in a freedom loving country, built on Christian principles, BEST country in the world? Do they not understand what the progressive party’s actual goal is? To suppress freedom and speech, to make government our parents? THEY are the fascists! THEY are the racists. Charlie was assassinated by someone radicalized by these same people who are narcissistic sociopaths who don’t CARE about the average person! My family has split over this divide. They do not understand that their vote went toward politicians who could not care less about the average American or Making America Great Again. Progressives are leaches who absorb the unsuspecting public by misdirection and full on lies. I just want them to STOP and actually listen to us “average people.” But they don’t and won’t. So, don’t vote for them. VOTE THEM OUT!!!
When Joe Manchin sold out his own constituents regarding his state’s coal production, and voted to extend Obamacare, that tells one all you need to know about Joe Manchin. He sounds more like that “other Joe”, “anything for a buck” Biden.
A real coward! Knew better but did voting for the Democratic Party!
SO FOR 15 YEARS MANCHIN WAS A DEM AND ALSO WAS OR BECAME A MILLIONARE…HMMMM. I REMEMBER WHEN BUZZARD WAS GOV OF WEST VIRGINIA…GOT THE NAME TURK BUZZARD CAUSE HE WAS ALWAYS AROUND WHEN THERE WAS MONEY TO BE PICKED UP…MANCHIN IS THE SAME.
The baby killers have a disasterous future waiting for them. MATTHEW,25:40- KJV
Well, he wrote it. Does the side of EVIL want to discuss what Joe Manchin claims? Does the side of goodness, morality, and behaving welcomingly in a polite society want to support anything he claims?
My guess would be “No” and “Yes.”
I have no intention to waste my money on making Manchin wealthier from his book sales, so thanks Matt for the book report.
“A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” James 1;8
The inside of Manchin’s head must resemble a constant fireworks show. An occasional sky rocket of a common sense vote shooting off, but then a steady display of disappointing (and STUPID) ‘dud’ votes for costly and hurtful left-wing radical BS laws, appointments and policies. A constant back and forth show of fireworks that were mostly duds that still cost hundreds of billions and on into the trillions of dollars.
At times he looked promising. But Manchin’s political ‘backbone’ just wasn’t strong or big enough for him to become a conservative.
Joe Mancin was a weasel, who sold out West Virginia coal. Majority of his donors were out of state, he was all talk no action.
He got his wife the top job at Appalachian Council, as was always reliable Marxist Democrat shill.
He is a rat trying to jump off a shrinking boat.
I distrust Manchin as well as any politician called a ‘moderate’ in any circle. For reference, see also Mark Warner D-VA.
Can’t ever trust this guy!
I doubt I can if I can add anything to the comments other than the Democrat party is an embarrassment to the world. They stand up for everything but the devil stands up for and they are against everything God stands for. Everything they touch they destroy. And they spend the rest of the time trying to blame somebody else. They are truly the epitome of evil and typify the statement that if their lips are moving they are lying
As the English would say, “That bugger is as dodgy as one could ever be!”
Just another cheap, two-bit politician blowing smoke up people’s collective asses.
Like all democrats who seek power Manchin is no different. Their rhetoric is one thing their actions another. Talk is cheap. Manchin has learned the Obama narrative. Say one thing do another. All to gain power. Power for himself and the left. He is a democrat through and through. Like slick Willy he has learned well. He is all talk but nu substance. He is pro Manchin, no one else. Like Obama whose speeches, that were written for him, sounded wonderful but his actions were none. Today he can’t speak off the cuff. Because he never had to. Like Biden who couldn’t form one sentence Obama was all fluff. Manchin presents himself on the outside as a middle of the road democrat, but is a lefty on the inside.
I wouldn’t trust this snake as far as I could throw him.
Manchin [like former IN senators Evan Bayh and his dad] tried to do JUST enough to pretend he was “moderate” while following the radical DIMM leadership. You couldn’t trust him [or them] on the big things. It got to the point where the stretch between truth and acting was TOO much! But at least he told the truth now that’s he out of the senate!
Keep producing these books on the Dems
He, along with Fetterman, have made the most sense out of the Democratic Party!
Liars lie, that’s what they do. They lie. Manchin is a democrat so he lies. Democrats lie. Democrats are not our colleagues they are not our friends. They are attacking our country in the attempt to turn it into a third world shit hole. They have succeeded in large, blue cities across the country. NO MORE!
Manchin is a gullible fool. He let the democrats tell him crap he believed to be true, and then found out they were lying. More than once. He is not smart enough to be a senator or congressman or president of a pta
I usta like Joe Manchin, decades ago when a Democrat was a Democrat and was recognizable. Then they fell off the far left side of world. A few hung around (like Joe M.) and talked a good talk, but voted with the Far Left anyway. So, here is another book written by a Dumba$$ocrat that is merely a waste of paper. Don’t forget to let the boys go potty with the girls, BTW.
Agreed. He definitely tried to portray himself as a moderate but then voted for almost every piece of far left legislation put in front of him. Real big phony that anyone paying attention could easily see through.
No plan, no leader, all talk, sell books. Now we have to hear about Harris and her book. Who in their right mind can vote for a democrat? It’s all about power and not doing nothing for the American people but take their money.
Joe Manchin is a fence sitter. He changes sides when it is advantageous for him! Now if he became a conservative, perhaps his personal views might be believable!
This guy fits the profile perfectly against two faced, dishonest, party first politician. Exactly what needs to be removed from Our Country! ALL these people are merely representatives of Citizens and WORK FOR US.
If they forget that,they’re the same old useless politician.
Manchin claims his independence from the Democrats but it seems his claims are unfounded!
Still Manchin was a sensible man and not frantic or full of name calling. He was cordial to everyone. The Dems of old used to be like that, too. But now they are all terrible. I can’t think of a single Dem who deserves reelection.
He stayed at the bosom for only how many years, I don’t want them embarrassed of which they are incapable, but charged with the crimes committed .
Joe Manchin will be remembered as one democrat with principles.