Wednesday on FNC’s “Fox & Friends,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), on the heels of the rollout of a bipartisan COVID-19 relief proposal, discussed his back-and-forth with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) over what the future of the holds for the Democratic Party.
The West Virginia lawmaker argued Americans couldn’t run their lives from extremes, making a reference to Ocasio-Cortez’s policy approach.
Partial transcript as follows:
KILMEADE: Right. Senator, right after the election, one of the first things that happened is, the Democratic side kind of took aim at each other and said, who came up with this defunding the police? It almost destroyed us, and it cost you statehouses, cost you many seats in the House of Representatives, and maybe prevented you from getting the Senate.
And one of the people who fired back at you is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She said I find it amusing when politicians try to diminish the seriousness of our policy work, movement organizing, and grassroots fundraising to just some tweets.
Because you said all she does is just tweet, doesn’t really get her name on legislation as — as serious. Politics is only done by begging corporate CEOs for money through wax-sealed envelopes delivered by raven.
All right, so she — you’re saying she should get busy and stop tweeting. And she’s saying to you, I am busy, and it’s much more than tweeting. What do you say?
MANCHIN: Well my — you know, I don’t have any disrespect for Congresswoman, we just differ, we just disagree. You can respectfully disagree, and we do that. My people in West Virginia expect me to represent them in a rational, responsible, civil manner, in a bipartisan, independent manner, and I do that to the best of my ability.
So, I don’t begrudge whatever she does. I’m just saying that Congresswoman has the right to do what she’s doing. She represents her people. They’ve elected her. It’s not who we are. We’re not going to defund the police. There’s not one Senator, Democrat Senator that supports defunding the police.
If anything, we think there should be more investments made to better equip, better train, continuing education, so they have the social changes and know them better as they have to deal with them.
There’s so much more that has to be done. Defunding is not an option on the table. It might be in certain people’s district, but no Senator, no Democrat or Republican I’ve ever heard, would defund the police in the Senate.
KILMEADE: She says she’s winning.
(LAUGHTER)
MANCHIN: Well, she has a lot of following, and I understand that. And you know, everyone has the right to do what they want to do on that, but you can see the support. If the support’s not in the legislature, in the Senate, or in the House, don’t you think you ought to find something that you can get support, that we can work towards the middle to pass.
People don’t run their lives from extremes, Brian. They don’t do it. They don’t run their businesses from extremes.
KILMEADE: Right.
MANCHIN: We all come together and make rational decisions. That’s all I’m asking them to do. Let’s be Americans, come together now, we’ve had a very divisive election, and we’re still split as a nation; we got to start healing and coming together.
KILMEADE: Right, and you might have no choice because you’re not going to get nothing done without doing that. And Senator Joe Manchin will be the fulcrum for that if that can happen. Senator Joe Manchin, can’t thank you enough.
MANCHIN: Thank you, Brian. And happy holidays to you all.
KILMEADE: All right, hope you guys can get something done.
MANCHIN: We’re going to. We’ll get it done. We’re going to stay here until we do get it done, Brian.
KILMEADE: All right. Good.
MANCHIN: We’re not going home for Christmas either and tell the people we didn’t do anything.
KILMEADE: I hear you. Meanwhile — thank you, Senator Joe Manchin, of West Virginia.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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