West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Catholic up for re-election this year, was one of the Democrats who spoke out against the White House birth control policy before it was altered.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Catholic up for re-election this year, was one of the Democrats who spoke out against the White House birth control policy before it was altered.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Former West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin III says that, at a time when political polarization is the norm and violence against public officials and figures is happening more often, both Democrats and Republicans are to blame for the “visceral hatred” felt today.
“Basically both parties are guilty of a — and I say it’s a business model,” Manchin said in an interview with Morning Edition. “This is a duopoly of [the] Democrat and Republican Party. That’s why I’m a fiercely proud independent right now, that I can work with both sides.”
The former Democratic senator, turned independent in 2024, was known for butting heads with liberals and people within his own party, and often being an ally to the GOP. In his new memoir titled, Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense, Manchin explains how a boy from a small coal mining community in Farmington, West Virginia became a significant figure in U.S. politics.
In the book Manchin details private conversations, including a tense, expletive-laden back-and-forth with former President Joe Biden in 2021, who was, at the time, trying to pass the Build Back Better Act. Manchin refused to support Build Back Better, though a renegotiated version called the Inflation Reduction Act eventually passed with his support in 2022.
“Joe Biden, whom I’ve known for quite a while, and I think the world of him, we just disagreed,” Manchin told Morning Edition. “I just never knew him to be that far left as his administration had moved.”
Manchin served U.S. Senate for just over 14 years and retired in January 2025. From his perspective, he was just a man trying to bring common sense to sometimes nonsensical politics.
He spoke with NPR’s Michel Martin about his new memoir and why he believes it’s time to create “an American independent party.”
The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview Highlights
Michel Martin: You wrote in the book, “I have watched the Democratic Party leave me and my state, and I have watched the Republican Party lose itself to one man.” Can you say more about that?
Joe Manchin: The party didn’t make me. I’m the person I am. And my dad had great friends who had an R by their name, and I just saw nothing but Kumbaya. They were all good buddies, who had different ideas. So, I never looked at it that way.
Martin: When you say, “I have watched the Republican Party lose itself to one man,” what do you mean by that?
Manchin: One person can’t always be right on everything. First of all, let me just tell you, I know President Trump. The first two years, I worked with him probably closer than any Democrat. I think one time he and I kidded around, I said, “I’m a Democrat like you used to be a Democrat, a conservative Democrat.” And we all worked together. So when they came to me with different things, and social services, there was so much give away, there was no one held accountable and responsible. If you want to get a person out of generational poverty, help them work themselves up. Change the financial cliff, the welfare cliff, to a slope. Let them work with some services until they get to a mean wage.
Martin: Is it possible, though, that part of it is that your view of politics is shaped by the fact that West Virginia is a very distinct place. Everybody knows everybody, like there’s six degrees of separation. That just isn’t the reality that a lot of people have, and a lot of your colleagues are working in very different environments. Is it possible that there are just things about their context that you don’t understand?
Manchin: I’m sure of that. A lot of people are able to work in their comfort zones. Think about my state, the least diverse state in the nation, the whitest state in the nation. OK. And here I am, coming from an immigrant family, being a Catholic in a state that basically that’s not the norm. So, I know that if you work hard and you try to give back more than what you’re willing to take out, they’re going to accept you. They’ll love you. You’ll be fine.
Martin: You have a whole chapter called “I Got It Wrong.” That was interesting. The one that really stood out to me is around Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. You said, “the decision to vote for Brett Kavanaugh did not just create problems for me professionally. My granddaughter Kelsey was living with us at the time and working on my campaign.” You said that when you got home that day, she was rolled into a ball and cried for hours. And you said that many volunteers working on your campaign quit over that vote. Do you think you were wrong on that vote?
Manchin: No, not at all.
Martin: So, this isn’t something you got wrong?
Manchin: What I got wrong is not understanding how personal this was to so many people. I should have done a better job of explaining, and I tried to. I would have hoped that basically the FBI report could have been made public, and it should have been made public because I went by that and I went by also talking to people who had personal relationships with Brett Kavanaugh. I just couldn’t see destroying a person’s life when I could not find the evidence he was being charged with.
Martin: What are you hoping to do with this book at this point? I mean, you report in some detail on some really tough conversations you had with people. Are you settling scores here?
Manchin: Not at all. No. If you read that book, it’s not a tell-all book. It basically explains how you get to these difficult situations coming from a little coal mining community in Farmington, West Virginia, and being able to sit there in the White House and being – just coming after you all the time in different ways they can with the powers of office. And this is not just with Joe Biden, which I’ve known for quite awhile, and I think the world of him, we just disagreed. And I just never knew him to be that far left as his administration had moved. And I told him that.
The audio story was produced by Kaity Kline and edited by Adriana Gallardo. It was adapted for web by Destinee Adams and edited by Obed Manuel.