West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey told Breitbart News in an exclusive statement that “President Trump is exactly right,” that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) “pretended to stand with West Virginians but then voted with Chuck Schumer” on tax reform.
Morrisey, who hopes to challenge Sen. Manchin in the 2018 midterm election, told Breitbart News, “President Trump is exactly right. On every issue that truly mattered to West Virginia — such as opposing Hillary, Obama, cap & trade, Planned Parenthood, and higher taxes— Joe Manchin pretended to stand with West Virginians, but then voted with Chuck Schumer and the liberal D.C. Democratic leadership. Joe Manchin is a classic ‘say one thing do another’ politician.”
President Donald Trump recently championed his legislative victories, such as passing tax reform and repealing Obamacare’s individual mandate, in an interview with the New York Times, while chiding Sen. Joe Manchin and other Democrats who refused to negotiate on the legislation.
President Trump scolded Democrats who often suggested that they would be open to a bipartisan tax reform bill. But Democrats such as Joe Manchin refused to make any concerted effort to construct a bipartisan tax bill with Republicans and the president.
Trump told the New York Times, “ Like Joe Manchin. He talks. But he doesn’t do anything. He doesn’t do,” Mr. Trump said. “‘Hey, let’s get together, let’s do bipartisan.’ I say, ‘Good, let’s go.’ Then you don’t hear from him again.”
Manchin told Sen. Bob Portman (R-OH) that he might support the Republican Tax Cuts and Jobs Act if only they were to drop the corporate tax rate to 25 percent and did not repeal Obamacare’s individual mandate.
“They were determined to make this a political bill, a partisan bill, and they didn’t need anybody. They didn’t want anybody,” Manchin said the day the Senate passed the Republican tax bill. “I even said, ‘Don’t you at least want the appearance — even if you get two or three of us — even if you get one of us?’”
Morrisey recently out-fundraised his primary opponent Rep. Evan Jenkins (R-WV) in the third quarter of 2017.
The pro-Donald Trump organization Great America Alliance endorsed Morrisey in his bid for the West Virginia Senate seat, as well as Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Montana state auditor Matt Rosendale.
The West Virginia attorney general told Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Alex Marlow that “Joe Manchin is every bit a part of the problem in the Swamp of Washington, DC, as you’re going to find for a few reasons.”