Former Senator Joe Manchin (I-WV) said that comments from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination were proof that the Democratic Party was “getting worse, not better.”
Manchin joined CNN host Kasie Hunt to discuss the current political climate, and she began by referring to Ocasio-Cortez’s comments objecting to the Congressional resolution to honor the recently-murdered conservative commentator.
WATCH:
“She does say that we should ‘be clear about who Charlie Kirk was, a man who believed that the Civil Rights Act that granted black Americans the right to vote was a mistake,’” Hunt began. “She goes on to name some of the other things that he believes in. What was your reaction to her vote and to her statement afterward?”
“First of all, I just saw a little while ago, and I was stunned, Kasie. I really was,” Manchin replied. “This is not the place and the time for that at all. If the Democrats — if AOC and the far Left, the extreme Left I want to say — believe that’s where the party, the Democratic Party, is today, then that’ll tell you why you lost people like me, and an awful lot.”
“Now, let me tell you what you’ve lost,” Manchin continued. “Since the last election, they’ve been doing their national tour and thinking, boy, that’s something, we’re really getting into something. The Democratic Party has lost more than 160,000 Democrats that have basically left the party since the November election. So if that’s the way the Democrat Party is going, it’s getting worse, not better.”
Ocasio-Cortez was not the only one to use the resolution as an opportunity to smear Kirk and his legacy.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ):
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS):
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA):
