Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that he’d be open to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) joining the Republican Party, Fox News reports.
Said McConnell: “I was shocked at the vitriol. And basically it seemed to me that they were calling Sen. Manchin a liar. I think that was not smart. This is a 50/50 Senate. It’s going to be 50/50 for another year, and believe me, this is not how I would handle a disappointing vote like that.”
He added: “He doesn’t fit well over there, but that is a decision ultimately that he has to make. We certainly welcome him to join us if he was so inclined.”
Jonathan Bernstein: “But Manchin has good reasons to stick with his party, even if his chances for re-election as a Democrat don’t seem high. For one thing, he’d have to radically change his voting pattern to win a Republican primary, and it’s possible he simply doesn’t want to do that. But I suspect a bigger deterrent to switching is the current condition of the Republican Party.”
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