Three months into Donald Trump’s second term, Democrats are struggling with how to counter the White House juggernaut.
Some are trying to revive the 2016 resistance. Some suggest “playing dead” in the hope that Trump flames out.
But former Democratic Senator Joe Manchin suggests a very different way, one many Democrats may find unpalatable – work with the president.
In a recent interview, one of the few he’s given since leaving Congress in January, he told me:
“[Trump] is the leader of our country. Why would you not work with him? Just because he’s a different party? Didn’t vote for him? That’s not a reason.”
For years, Manchin was a unique politician who could win re-election as a Democrat in the deep-red Trump country of West Virginia.
Occasionally, he was a thorn in the side of the Democratic Party, even voting against some of Joe Biden’s key policies that couldn’t, and didn’t, survive without his support. Before leaving office in January, Manchin changed his official designation from “Democrat” to “Independent.”
It’s because Manchin is retired both from the Senate and from the Democratic Party that I wanted to get his thoughts on what’s happening in Washington and how the Democrats would meet this moment. In my experience of politics, people tend to be more candid once they’re no longer running for office.
“I want Donald Trump to succeed,” Manchin told me. “I want to help wherever I can help. I want to give them my experience of the mistakes I have made that we shouldn’t make again.”
