YouSaid · the spoken record

Joe Manchin

lines on the record: 67
first: 2025-09-18
most recent: 2025-09-18
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Little tidbit to everybody. When you meet a person who's had a title or still has a title because of their position being elected, pointing whatever they may be. If they introduce themselves by their title before the name, 99% of the time you have a problem. They think more about the power of the job. The person they become, or the person they were.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I've been an optimistic person. I'm a realist also, and I understand how difficult it is. But I'm optimistic that basically we've been able to reach and pull ourselves out every time we've had challenges. And again, we'll go back to how we started about the angels, you know, the special angels that we all have in us. I think everyone has good in them. I don't think you go through the process of getting elected in the public eye today and not have the desire to serve. And West Virginia, I've always said, a person can shake your hand, look in your eye and see your soul. See, it's hard to BS them. And I'm hoping they still have that gut instinct now. We've got to get people with character, good people that really want to be there for the right reason. And if they want self-govern themselves, then put the term limits on them. That would be the best way.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Republican, there's some really interesting people out there in the Republican. I'm not in that circle as much as I was in the Democrats before. But some of the governors they have out there have been very rational, reasonable. Mitt Romney was always a person I could work with very closely. Lisa Murkowski, some of these people here are unbelievable to work with, and Susan Collins, who's up right now, I pray for the sake of the sin that Susan Collins wins again. I don't think anyone's going to be able to replace the Susan Collins the way she approaches the problems and willing to look at the facts. And that's why she's so good.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's an interesting one there, but we'll see what happens. The thing of it is that, you know, you have good people, you have a Josh Shapiro who's been able to govern in a kind of a split state. You got Andy Bashir in a state that really leans more Republican. I've got a little bit of preference towards governors, whether they be Republican or Democrat because they've been able to function. Gretchen Widenmar seems to be like a very rational person. I don't know Gretchen that well. I know Josh and I know Andy better than I know.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I couldn't do that because you know what? I didn't like what you're seeing now. Man, like a lot of that. I think I can work better from the center than I could have a D or an R because I think there's some things that both sides do. I want the Democrats to be that compassion they've always been. But responsible. You can't put roadblocks in front of me, put so many restrictions on me I can't even breathe. The Constitution says you have the right to the pursuit of happiness. Me taking the oath to the Constitution is going to protect you, have that right for your pursuit of happiness. You find your happiness, and I'll do it. Even if it's something I don't believe and just don't make me believe I'm wrong if I don't believe in what you want.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's all I can tell you I'm not going to change. I know you were asking, Cara, why did I lead the Democratic Party or why I thought it left me? I just couldn't go home to the people I represented and having a D, a Washington D on my name and saying I'm representing you. When they don't believe that the National Democratic Party is representing a rural poor state, I just got to be honest with you. It's kind of hard to have that conversation”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't want to be going down in history that because of you being involved or me being involved or anyone else that this party basically through the election one way or the other you get blamed for it I mean, if there could have been a way to have truly a legitimate way to get on the platform and debate. Said, this makes sense to you what we're doing.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They were ripe for, let's say, a person who had been associated as a Democrat, one had been associated as a Republican to put a team together, and basically commit to one four-year term. We're going to bring our country back together and look at both sides, the best of both sides, trying to bring that back to the middle. Okay, would that have worked? It looked like it could, in theory. It looked like it could when polling was done. But when you start trying to get on the ballot, the way the system has been weaponized, the duopoly that we have right now, the Democrat model and the Republican model is based all fear natured. So trying to get in on the ballots was something that was almost impossible. When it came down to it, closer and closer to making a decision to run or not, could we put a team together? Who would that team be? We were getting looking at different people that have interest and had the ability to do it. But then the same, wait a minute, I don't want to be a part of a team that's going to be looked as basically a spoiler.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Let me ask this Do you think that what I was looking at when I saw a couple two three years ago? And we kept seeing all the way up until we really got hot and heavy into this past 2024 election year, that every poll showed that people for ripe for a centrist, they were ripe for that.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I tell you one thing there's more people that believe, like I think, like I do, more of a centrist looking at what's the best idea. I want people that'll put their country before the party. If you're going into the political official being a fame and fortune, then you're chasing for your own personal goal. You're not chasing it for helping basically the country. And so term limits maybe give us more of a clarity to that. Maybe we can fix some of the other problems, but you throw away all the guardrails. And I know they keep going back to the filibuster. You start throwing away what few guardrails we have. You've got nothing. You've got nothing that'll be flip-flopping back and forth, no different than countries around the world who have no standing. We don't care about the finances of our country anymore. If we lose the reserve currency of the world being US dollar, we got serious problems, serious, serious financial problems. Playing with crypto the way they're playing.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We're clear down to the 10 yard, and basically it's just way out. I mean, it's gotten to the point where the yin and yang are driving it.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, let's look right now what's happening. What's the largest denomination of people that are participating in voting? What do they belong to? The Democrat Party, Republican Party. Right now, it's about 23 24% registered Democrats, maybe 26%, 27% Republican. The largest is no party affiliation, which is what I belong to. So you have people that want to belong to the grand old party that's not so grand anymore. You like people like to be with the Democrat Party used to be responsible and compassionate. There don't seem to be as responsible as they were before. So you have that mixture in the middle. Is it ripe? Yeah, I think it's ripe. I'd like to see American Independent Party scare the bejesus out of the two for the gone so far. We never went to the extremes. We've always kind of governed between the 40-yard line. 40 and 40.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Then you come along and they want to do the BBB. The other big, beautiful bill. And not looking at basically what is going to affect and how, but also it doesn't take effect until after 2026 election, until 2027. But wait a minute, if you're passing a piece of legislation that's so needed, don't you want to take effect immediately to help all the people? They were afraid of the pushback. So I don't know if that's going to resonate with people that what's going to hit you in 2027 happen because it was voted on in 2025. I never seen anything like it, but people haven't comprehended that yet, I don't believe.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We'll see. You would like to think that people usually vote to pocket books. Vote your services, one of the two. And with that being said, these changes, it amazed me that if you're going to do a piece of legislation when President Biden wanted to do BBB and I thought was an overreach and expansion that we could never ever afford, he and I spoke one time and I told Mr. President, I says, you know, you and I are about the same vintage. You're a little bit older, but we're not that far apart. And I'm from the school John Kennedy asked not what your country can do for you, what you can do for your country. To me, that's what's calling me to public service. I think I can do something. And I wanted to. You passed this piece of legislation, Mr. President. You're going to change the psychic of the nation. How much more can my country do for me? I couldn't buy into that, okay?”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think he knows there's still guard wheels. There are certain things. The checks and balances are still there. The judicial branch, basically, is still there. I still think there's some people that you're going to see that could be surprising. And the midterm election could change everything. Demeanor of what we're doing and how much get up and go they got.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Mish McConnell says, no, it doesn't work that way. And Republican Senator is almost to a T. Said, absolutely not. We're not getting me in the filibuster for that. No, we're not going to. And it just basically made just open warfare. I was up there and the berating that they received from the White House at that time was unbelievable. But after the second term, I was hoping for the first pushback. Let's put it that way. And hopefully, well, they haven't gotten rid of the filibuster. They're allowing some of these things.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Concerns me from the standpoint thinking that one person is above the law. And I think if you go back to our founding fathers or the Federalist Papers and this and that, they looked at everything they hated about King George. They looked at everything they hate about a monarch. We'll make sure we didn't do anything that'll lead us down that path. They were pretty good for about 200 years. Last 40 have been pretty rough. We're testing it. You asked about something a little bit earlier. About the Republican Party. If you recall, you remember how soured the relationship between Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump was the Because they had, I think it was 54 or 53 Republicans. I'm not sure during that term. And Donald Trump kept saying, hey, listen, we got a majority of Republicans. Just pass what I want.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. Okay. You have that. You get that courage a little bit earlier knowing this is your last. I really truly believe it's needed probably as much as anything, and it might cure some of the problems of gerrymandering and all these other things.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm getting better than that. You know what? I says, I'm sorry. I agree with you. And I've been for term limits ever since because it would give that legislature the courage to be independent for that last two-year term or the last six-year term if you're a senator.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I had a lady one time care that told me in Southern West Virginia there had been 200 people to town hall and I was speaking and she asked me a question do I wish you were for term limits so I tried to explain to her had me ten or more years 15 years ago when I was governor and I told her why I was not for term limits at that time thinking what I'd kind of always thought and heard you have people with expertise now here I was as a governor I'm term limited out in two terms eight years two fours but I thought well you know you lose expertise in the legislative process And all the knowledge and everything. And she looked at me and she said, just think, Joe, if there were term numbers, maybe we get one good term out of you”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Worry about the independency of the three branches. Judicial, executive, and legislative. I thought there was an awful lot of people that I know are very strong willed and very smart in the Republican side that I was hoping for would have been able to speak respectfully truth to power. And that's why I've come to the conclusion you almost need term limits anymore.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of the states, you know, there's still states right Tenth Amendment gives states the rights are not going to be basically forced to run their government like the federal does. I think that's the whole purpose of it, you know, keeping a government to where the states do have some right as a as a former governor, I was very, very concerned about how we ran our elections. I had to answer to the people. So the people of Texas, the people of California, all of them should be speaking out. This is wrong because what happens today will be worse tomorrow. And so it's not getting any better, but saying that we're going to outlaw and ban it. You know, I wish you could. I think it's wrong. I think you have to have independent commissions. But that's for the states to decide. The state's responsible for their elections, not the federal government.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You can't make exemptions like a little bit of pregnancy. We tried. We looked at everything we could. What I like to see, the filibuster, is you have to have talking filibuster. You have to go down the floor and explain. You have to have maybe 10 other senators that will agree with you that you think it's a serious problem. That would make it more concrete. It would give more credence to it and credibility. And just you can do reform like that, but you say, well, I can't carve this out. That's like, okay, Harry Reid tried to carve it out. He carved out the U.S., the Supreme Court. How long does that work?”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You have all that going for you, and you have no checks and balances to where you can say, Wait a minute, that's not what pushed this through. I understand where he's coming from, but if you had open primaries, you wouldn't be able, the president couldn't target or the party couldn't target someone who's not a good enough Republican or Democrat and primary him. The open primary or ranked choice voting, which my dear friends Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, would never get elected as Republicans if it wasn't for that.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Do I regret not getting into the filibuster? Absolutely not. It's a holy grail. We have to work through it. And the bottom line is these gerrymanding, what goes around comes around. It's horrible what the president has asked Texas to do, now what California is in retaliation is doing, and all this. I think there's some states that basically use nonpartisan commissions. There's some states that even use computers. There has to be a way forward on this thing here. I mean, if you're asking about the biggest problems that we have right now, it's basically the Malamonian campaigning. The amount of money that people can put in, the Citizens United was horrible, horrible, horrible. And also basically its primaries. You know, right now you have a strong president with you have a trifecta, if you will, the House, the Senate, and the executive branch.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“West doing us not shot. Just think where you'd be right today. Think where the Democrats would be if I would have voted to get rid of the filibuster, where they would be today, with Donald Trump having the trifecta. Even though he's doing a lot of things with the executive, he's not changing rules or putting rules and laws into place. The rules he's putting in can be undone as quickly as next. You put a law, it takes a little bit longer.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was the whole purpose of it? But so didn't have to have any written. It was basically the decorum of the Senate. What we were supposed to and what was expected of us.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“One when we had isolationists didn't want to send any goods to our troops, to our allies, and they had to get over this. I think it was a 67 vote threshold at that time. Then it went down to, I think it went to 60. Anyway, it came down to try to get it more workable. But basically we found out as we went through this that it kind of put us together. It didn't let you just retreat to your corner and just fight to your death. The house already did that. And I think it was George Washington that says, you know, the house is going to be like a hot cup of tea. You've heard that many times, I'm sure. And the Senate will be like a saucer. They'll cool the tea off so we can drink it.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, people's house and represented based on what the population is in one person is all, you know, have equal representation. And then what about this other one called the Senate? He said, well, the Senate is going to be a little differently. He said, every state's going to have two representatives. Two, you're telling me, and I'm a senator from Massachusetts, that basically Rhode Island and Delaware, those little teeny places that have no economy whatsoever to speak of or people, that they're going to have the same right that I have can offset my vote. Yeah, I don't want the big guys beating up on the little guys. This is going to be the United States not to divide it. So Senate had basic. A senator always had the ability to speak forever. Take the time, and time is precious on the floor of the Senate. So if you tie things up, that's the filibuster, there's nothing written, but there was nothing to stop a senator from speaking until 1917. That's when the cloture votes came in. During World War II,”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Founding fathers, well, let's ask this. There's 13 colonies, right? 1789. Came out of there had to explain to the states what we have, what kind of government do we have. We've always heard the famous asking Benjamin Franklin, you have a Republic young man if you can keep it. But someone had to tell big old Massachusetts, which was a key factor in that period of time, economic force for our country. And then you had, of course, you have Pennsylvania, you had a big four, you had New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Someone had to tell them that we're going to have a bicameral. We'll have a house.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Never had, you'd have never had all your judges. You'd have never had the Supreme Court. But when he did the circuit and district judges, you knew darn well as soon as Mitch McConnell got a hold of it, being the iron horse that he is. He was going to go for the Supreme. And he did.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If I become governor, if I become president, I want to bring a team together. They're going to come under me and they're going to leave when I leave. Their term of office does not extend one minute longer than when I leave. Why can't they just be after you do a vetting of them, FBI background check? And if they're all having good standing, you might not like them. You might not like their politics. I got elected representative to represent the country or my state. Let me put my team together, if not throw us all out. That's will and pleasure. That should be a 51-vote threshold. You shouldn't have to go through all this rim of row. And it's almost basically prevent a president or any executive from putting their team together. You want to cripple them. They can't run the government, so it'll look bad. You don't play politics that way. And I promise, I asked him to do that. Well, so they don't talk. There's no relationships. If they'd have done that,”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“People have to confirm confirmations and all that. And I told Harry Reid back in 2013, I said, Harry, why don't you just go talk to Mitch? And Mitch, and right now, you're all upset. The Obama administration is upset because they can't get some of their people approved, which is what Trump's people are right now to get their staff and cabinet. And I said There's a thing called will and pleasure.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“On both sides. I don't see anyone reaching out. Anything I felt more comfortable that the Republicans would hold on to the filibuster. But now I'm seeing, and I've talked to some of my Republican friends, they're like encroaching a little bit from here, nibbling away here, nibbling away here, trying to basically bundle.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Bill Clinton, it was basically Erskine Bow John And then with you, Newt, and you had the president. They worked this thing out. It started spinning off basically surpluses. We were going down where we were at $6 trillion. And after we had 9-11, and we had two wars that we never paid for, declared war, first time, under George W. And then we had two Bush cuts, tax cuts. She shot up like this. Under Obama, it kept Under Trump, it went quicker in a four year period, I agree. And now with what you're talking about now, I was totally opposed to what they were doing. And both parties, Joe Biden won the BBB Bill and Donald Trump won the BBB Bill. Both of them are horrendous on the debt. No one's talking about it.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In her book, basically, I only knew one part Never caucus with the other party And if I was so enamored with him, I'd have joined him. Didn't I join him? Because I didn't think the party system had gotten so absolutely separated to the point where they're not representing the American people. You've got to be selling your soul to one side or the other. I don't agree. And I told him that. I said, you have to have a secured border. You have to have basically laws, and the rule of law means everything. And when you do the crime you pay the fine, you pay the price. Democrats be getting lax and lax and lacks on this. And I've told them you can't do that. They've never talked about one-time care did I ever hear 15 years I was there from the Democrat side had ever talked about the debt of the nation when I got there it was 13 trillion it's growing now to 37”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I could tell you he hadn't been acclimated to how this works. And about that time, Ryan's Priebus, who was the head of the RNC at one time. He saw Joey. He says, no, no, we'd have to work that out. And, of course, I knew the answer, and I started laughing. I said, Ryan, I understand. You have to have your people there to make sure that office runs the way you want it, not the way I would want to do it. And I said, Mr. President, listen, in all honesty, I says, whoever my president, and you're my president now, you just got elected. I want you to succeed, and I'll do everything I can to help you. But I will speak truth to power. And there'll be times I just cannot vote for things that you would like, but always give you a reason why. He seemed to accept that. But then, you know, as you know, he's gotten more demanding a little bit.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He called me up when they first got elected in 2016 because he's looking, everyone says, you have to have a bipartisan administration. So I went up to New York, went up and visited with him, and we sat there and we talked. And he had other people around. He had Reinz Priebus and different people. And we were talking. I said, Mr. President, if you and I are going to go down this and consider us working together, I said, what I would want to know is what you expected from that office. So let's say it's energy. What would you expect from energy? Okay. And then allow me to put a staff together that would produce if we didn't produce those out.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And the hardships and all that. So you can blame it on so many different things that you can. We are a state that was basically discovered during the Civil War and taken advantage of every day after. Absentee ownerships, a lot of the gilded homes in Rhode Island were based off the backs of West Virginia land and coal and minerals. Things of that sort. So we didn't get to return to other states have gotten, whether it be Detroit with the automobiles and things of that sort. Yeah, we got hit hard.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I just thought for sure Democrats can't be that far off the rector scale. They've got to come back. These are people I would grow up with and knew, and one by one they were getting just annihilated and people started changing registration. And I told Elizabeth, I says, Elizabeth, I can tell it to you this way. You don't want to hear what I'm going to tell you, but I'm going to tell you. The Democrats that I know and grew up with in West Virginia truly believe that the Democratic National Party in Washington, D.C. spends more resources, time and effort on able bodied, capable people that don't or won't work than you do on those who do. I can't tell to you any straighter.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was a horrible cap and trade. Let me tell you, cap and trade over in New York. Cap and trade basically charges you for every amount of carbon content you have in products you buy. Okay. What do they do with the proceeds? And I said, well, you're doing is putting all your money in your social welfare reforms without fixing the problem, but you're penalizing the problem. So I said, I'm not going to be for that. I said, if you want to fix something, let's do it.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not good enough, not clean enough, not green enough, not smart enough, you just don't need me anymore. Leave me behind. The war on coal, you heard about that when Obama got elected. He wanted to switch everything to renewables. There's nothing wrong with what he wanted to do because he was elected as the president of the United States. But you just can't leave a whole generation society or a state behind. There was nothing to replace what he wanted to switch. There was nothing left. There was no jobs coming. And towns were shuttered. And I'm thinking, my God, this is. You're putting unreasonable demands. You're putting targets that the technology is not there for us to meet. So it really is a war. That started it and it went down from there. And I said,”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And there's nothing wrong with that. She said, Joe, what happened to the West Virginia Democrat? That's when the state flipped totally Republican for the first time in 80 years. I says, Lizbeth, really not a whole lot. They want to know what happened to the Washington Democrats. She says, what do you mean? I says, well, the Democrats that I knew and grew up with really believe in their heart of hearts right now that the Washington Democrats treat them as if they were returning Vietnam veteran.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“How did you lose all the coal miners? How'd you lose all the factory workers? And you know our state of West Virginia, a lot of your homegrown family members are from there and still have roots there. They were hardworking people never asked for a whole lot. I said I'm a Democrat all my life. Why was I a Democrat? Probably because my grandfather was than my parents were because they were very appreciative of what FDR did back and give him a chance when things were tough back in the Depression. And then with that, we always thought the Democratic Party would always be there to help a working family, to help someone basically have safe working conditions, and have benefit packages, okay? That was it. They weren't getting involved in our life to tell us what we should think about, what we should do, and we're wrong if we don't. So I was asked the question, in 2014 by Elizabeth Warren, my friend, we're friends, but we just differ a lot.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's helped a lot of people in West Virginia. But those who are still working, they didn't have the choices they had before. And that was the problem, okay? But we're better for it than we were without it. And can we improve upon it? Absolutely.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Help the rural hospitals because we're starting to get payment. Now they never got before. They were given free care. And so I was hopeful that would be. And I want to make something better. And I still think we can improve.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And we have to buy the product you're offering. We would have no choice. It is either buy this or you got nothing, or you'll be fine. Well, Max, that might work in Montana, but I don't think that's going to work in West Virginia. If you're forcing us to buy something without letting us shop it and telling us what we're going to have to buy, and if we don't do it, you tell us you're going to find us. I don't think that would be the best way to approach this. Well, they made some modification, but we know it came out. So I wasn't I wasn't... Against it or fort. Once we had it, it helped a lot of West Virginians who had nothing.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And we helped each other. That bill started dividing us as governors because they started getting all these phone calls from Washington. You're a Democrat. You've got to support this. You're a Republican. You got to be against this and on and on and on. And we're talking and trying to make sense out of this. And I said, well, let me just listen to what Max Bacchus is going to basically give us a rundown of what the bill does. And he spoke to us and I says, Max, let me make sure I understand. You're saying that everyone has to buy insurance.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“As governors, we were always homogenous. We were always together. If you went to a national governor association meeting, you couldn't tell who the D's and the R's were. We all had education problems. We had road problems. We had serviceability. We had all the different things. We had education. We had to work through these problems.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Run, are you willing to help Recruit people to get involved, or you just want to sell on the sideline and say, someone else will do that. And if we get more people sitting on sidelines, if we get more people expected to get something out of government than they're putting into it, it won't work. So people said, I think we might be at the end of this experiment. I hope not. We've been through difficult, challenging times before. And we came out of that. And there was a time I thought we wouldn't. So those people who think this dire right now will never make it, we will.”
2025-09-18 · On with Kara Swisher · Joe Manchin on Trump, the Dems & the Filibuster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT