Manchin: Schumer Got Pushed Left, ‘Don’t Know’ if He Can Get Back to Middle

On Friday’s broadcast of C-SPAN’s “Ceasefire,” former Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) stated that Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) “got moved to the left” because he thought that’s where the party’s caucus was and said that he’s unsure if Schumer can bring things back to the middle.

Manchin said, “I wouldn’t give Chuck advice, I would just tell him this: Chuck, I don’t think you were ever what I would call liberal or progressive to the left. But you got moved to the left because you thought that’s where your caucus was. And I kept telling you, I said, Chuck, you keep moving left, I told Joe Biden, you keep moving left, it’ll be your Waterloo. It’ll be the doomsday for you, because you cannot go left enough to appease the people that don’t have any [rational] common sense. And that’s what’s happened. So, if he can bring that back to the middle, I don’t know if he can. I think there are some people, basically, can work in the middle, and we’ll see what happens.”

Manchin further stated that Schumer should talk to Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune (R-SD) every day, and praised Schumer as someone you can talk with, work with, and have back-and-forth with.

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett