Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced he would skip President Obama’s Capitol Hill meeting with Democrats on defending Obamacare.
“In good conscience, I can’t do it,” Manchin said Wednesday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, according to the Hill.
He added:
If anyone listened and paid attention to what the American people said when they voted, they want this place to work. Can you imagine in here … we have the outgoing president coming up here today to talk to only Democrats. We have the incoming vice president coming up to talk only to Republicans.
Manchin then stated that this is not what “makes this place work.”
Obama met congressional Democrats on Capitol Hill to discuss how to prevent Republicans from repealing Obamacare.
Vice President-elect Mike Pence also addressed Obamacare in a meeting on Capitol Hill with Republicans Wednesday, the Washington Times reported.
Manchin said that 172,000 West Virginians gained health care under Obamacare for the first time, but he also said that Obamacare could use a lot of “repairing.”
“I’m willing to look at replacing, repairing, doing anything that we can to make it better. But put something on the table,” he said. “I just can’t believe the Republicans would go down this path and just throw it out and say, ‘Trust us, in two or three years, we’ll fix it.'”