Sen. Joe Manchin says he won’t vote with party, doesn’t ‘give a s—t’ if it costs him election

Civil political discourse took a beating in West Virginia this weekend when a Democratic senator profanely proclaimed that he was going to vote the way he wanted and didn’t “give a s–t” if it cost him his seat.

“I don’t give a s–t, you understand? I just don’t give a s–t,” Sen. Joe Manchin told the Charleston Gazette-Mail on Sunday, saying he wasn’t going to toe his party’s line on every issue.

“Don’t care if I get elected, don’t care if I get defeated, how about that. If they think because I’m up for election, that I can be wrangled into voting for s–t that I don’t like and can’t explain, they’re all crazy,” he continued.

“I’m not scared of an election, let’s put it that way. Elections do not bother me or scare me,” he said.

“I’m going to continue to do the same thing I’ve always done, extremely independent.”

President Trump won West Virginia by a mile, and Democratic Gov. Jim Justice pointedly switched teams and joined the GOP at a Trump campaign rally in the state last week.

Manchin’s angry comments followed a slam from GOP senatorial candidate Patrick Morrisey, who called for the incumbent to resign from the Democratic leadership.

Morrisey cited Manchin’s refusal to sign onto a letter establishing Democrats’ three main policy points on tax reform, The Hill reported.

Manchin was one of three Democrats in the Senate who didn’t sign the letter.

He explained that he agreed with the party platform but wanted party leaders to get Republicans on board.

“The bottom line is, if it doesn’t help West Virginia, it doesn’t make sense to me, and just because there’s an election doesn’t mean I sign on or don’t sign on,” Manchin told the Gazette-Mail.

“If you look at all the time I’ve been here, there’s stuff I don’t sign on to. I just don’t think it’s a good way to do business when you don’t try to get people from the front end.”