Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
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- Mitch McConnell issued another invitation to Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin to join the GOP.
- The Senate minority leader said Democrats “want to call [Manchin] a liar” and “embarrass him.”
- Manchin had been intensely criticized by Democratic colleagues after tanking Biden’s spending plan.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reissued his invite to Sen. Joe Manchin to join the Republican Party, saying the West Virginia Democrat would be “more comfortable” there.
McConnell said he had been astonished by the angry reaction of Manchin’s Democratic colleagues after his shock announcement Sunday that he would not support President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion domestic spending plan.
“Obviously we would love to have him on our team,” McConnell told The New York Times in an interview published Tuesday. “I think he’d be more comfortable.”
“Why in the world would they want to call him a liar and try to hotbox him and embarrass him?” McConnell said.
“I think the message is, ‘We don’t want you around.’ Obviously that is up to Joe Manchin, but he is clearly not welcome on that side of the aisle.”
Manchin has fueled rumors that he could leave the Democratic Party next year after his bombshell decision to oppose Biden’s economic agenda.
McConnell said in 2019 that he had tried to persuade Manchin, who is in frequent touch with the GOP leadership, to join the Republican Party “many times” but failed to do so, The Hill reported.
The 50-50 balance of the Senate means that Manchin’s decision to switch to the GOP would hand control of the Senate to the Republicans.
Axios reported Monday that people around Manchin were discussing his leaving, but said he would prefer to be an independent and caucus with the Democrats rather than fully switch sides.
Manchin has repeatedly denied that he plans to join the Republicans and in October dismissed a report that he was considering defecting, calling it “bullshit.”
Republican Sen. John Cornyn also said he had contacted Manchin this week to invite him to join the Republican party this week.
He told KXAN on Tuesday that he had texted Manchin to say, “Joe if they don’t want you we do.”
“I don’t know what he will decide to do. But I do know West Virginia has gotten increasingly red … So, yeah, we’d love to have him. That would change the majority,” Cornyn told KXAN. He said he had not received a reply.
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