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Manchin on changing parties: 'I don’t know where in the hell I belong'

"I don't think the R's would be any more happier with me than D's are right now," Manchin says

October 26, 2021 10:26am

Updated: October 28, 2021 5:51pm

West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin said Tuesday morning that "it would be much easier" to be a Republican but he's not planning to switch political parties at this time.

Manchin said people have approached him "every day" about changing his political party.

"Do you think by having a D or an I or an R is going to change who I am? I don't think the R's would be any more happier with me than D's are right now," Manchin said during an Economic Club event in Washington, D.C. "I mean that's about as blunt as I can put it so I don’t know where in the hell I belong."

Manchin said he never received support from the far left or far right in his career.

Talk of Manchin, a moderate Democrat in a Red-leaning state and an increasingly progressive-mined party, switching parties reigniated last week after a news report stating he had recently discussed such a move.