Former Sen. Joe Manchin says in a forthcoming book that prominent Democrats have worked for years to undermine the nation’s checks and balances, and that he privately hoped Republicans would win in 2024 as the only way to preserve the Senate filibuster.
In excerpts of Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense obtained by Punchbowl News, the West Virginia Democrat-turned-independent recounts clashes with party leaders, criticizes President Joe Biden’s temperament and details his refusal to help abolish the legislative filibuster. The book, published by Macmillan, is set to be released Tuesday.
Manchin, 78, who served more than 14 years in the Senate after a stint as West Virginia governor, said Democrats from the Obama administration through the Biden era "have systematically tried to weaken the very guardrails that have protected our democracy for generations — all in the name of advancing their agenda." He said that pressure from party leaders grew as the party sought to pass major legislation.
He described a 2022 episode in which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pressed him to weaken the filibuster to advance election-related legislation. "Schumer wasn’t interested in debate or persuasion," Manchin wrote. "He wanted a spectacle. He wanted a vote he could weaponize, a moment he could broadcast to the radical left to prove his loyalty. This wasn’t about governing or principle. It was about power."
Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema opposed eliminating the 60-vote legislative filibuster during their final terms, arguing it was necessary to preserve the Senate as an institution. In the book, Manchin said he had been so committed to preserving the filibuster that he privately preferred a Republican Senate in 2024 if that was the only way to maintain it.
Turning to President Biden, Manchin wrote that the president has a "very bad temper" and recounted confrontations during negotiations over the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in early 2021. Manchin said he called Biden "reckless" for "sending a f—ing check to everyone." The Rescue Plan has been cited by some critics as a contributing factor to the annual inflation rate that reached 9.1% in June 2022, the highest in nearly 40 years.
Manchin framed his positions as rooted in what he called fiscal responsibility coupled with social compassion. He also criticized what he described as a shift in the Democratic Party toward "woke ideology, DEI mandates, and other social agendas," saying those moves alienated everyday citizens and moved the party away from a "commonsense middle ground."
He also reflected on his own political trajectory, saying he should have switched his party affiliation after Donald Trump’s 2016 election. "What I failed to recognize at the time is that there were enough reasons to change my political affiliation to Republican right then and there," Manchin wrote, adding that his desire to remain independent of party orthodoxy kept him from doing so.
Manchin, who chose not to seek a third full term in 2024, frequently voted against Democratic priorities and was considered a pivotal centrist in the evenly divided chamber. The book excerpt says Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asked Manchin to run for reelection in 2024 in hopes of keeping the seat in Democratic hands; a Schumer representative did not comment to The Post when asked about that request.
Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense is being published by Macmillan and will be available to the public on Tuesday.