Transcript of Sen. Manchin reacts to Trump’s victory

Joining me now is Joe Manchin, the retiring senior senator from West Virginia. Senator, I'm glad to talk to you. Wow, what an historic moment we are in the midst of even now. Let's just start where Monu, he was laying out where the House is right now in various races, who's up, who's down. Obviously, Donald Trump has the White House, Republicans have the Senate. Where do you think it stands here on the House? Do Democrats still have a chance or will Republicans have it in addition to the Senate and the White House?

Well, let's say the races that are so close right tonight that we're still looking at and watching and everything is basically in swing areas. Swings can go either way. I've said this, Donald Trump didn't win just with MAGA, he won with the centrist, the common sense, the independence in the middle. He was able to have a program that basically more people bought in than what Kamla did. That's the middle. The power of the middle is unbelievable. I just hope when they get to Washington, they remember how They got there. They got there by appealing to reasonable, responsible, sensible people that are in the middle. I'm in the middle. A lot of people, Democrats have become homeless, and a lot of Republicans became homeless. We weren't Washington Democrats. We weren't Republican Democrats, but we wanted to get things done. You get things done from the middle. Those are the tight races that can barely get by. And when they do get by, remember how you got elected and who voted for you. It's going to be the swing area, the middle of your district that basically got you over the hub.

So when you talk about what... You're talking overall about the House, the Senate, but Trump, specifically, who got him there? I mean, look, overall, the results are overwhelming, but it was a lot of different people, as you point out. Hispanic men, well, that really stands out, right? That's an unprecedented shift in American politics. Hispanics overall in several crucial places. Better than Joe Biden did in 2020 among black women, white women, old people, pretty much all people. Now, I know, Senator, that you never endorsed Harris, specifically. But I guess just there's a very basic question out there. Do you think any Democrat could have beaten Trump?

Well, anybody can be beaten if you have the right candidate with the right message, but basically who's connecting with the people on the front lines that are working, going to work every day, trying to provide for their families? They're not caught up in all this hollow blue, but they're basically, if someone is saying something that resonates, it makes them understand they're They're going to be safer. They're going to have less inflation. They're going to be able to take care of their kids and have a job that they can hopefully thrive at and things of that sort. What happens? We get off and the politicians get off so much on all of the intric of how people are going to live their life and this and that and everything and forget about those who are actually working every day to live their lives. And I think that swing area, President Donald Trump has to understand that's where he won. His group has always get in there, his base. And Kamala's base was always there. It was that middle that basically swung to him.

No, that's right. I guess I'm just saying there are people out there who say, Well, Joe Biden should have stayed in, or he should have gotten out earlier, and you could have had a primary. And then they pick your choose your own adventure, whether you're picking Westmore, or Josh Shapier, or Gertrude Whitmer, or Gavin Newsom. Or do you look out there and go, Hey, guys, if you had just done this differently with a different horse or at a different time, Democrats wouldn't be sitting where they're sitting now?

I'm not going to second guess. You know how I felt about many primary things of that sort. But the bottom line is you need to be tested. When you're tested in a situation such as that, you get good ideas. Every time I run for an office, every time I had primaries, I got tested in the primary, I got tested in general, I always learned. I thought it made me a better candidate. It made me a better representative once I won. So I appreciated that type of back and forth. And with that, I think really tonight Last night, what we should be thinking, basically, how to do this in democracy, thanking all the poll workers. We're going to be able to show an orderly transfer of power. This is so much needed for the superpower of the world to be able to show that we can have in the most contentious times. I want to congratulate President Trump on his victory. I want to thank Kamala Harris for her concession speech. Basically saying, I will accept it. I will basically orderly transfer. She'll have to be there when they certify it. And that speaks volumes to what we have in America.

It does. It does. In a moment where I think people had incredible anxiety and fear over how that would play out. There's still time. We see how all this goes. But what we saw today was something to be proud of. Your seat is going to be taken by, obviously, Republican. You had left the Democratic Party. You were an independent, but you, obviously, were a Democrat for a long time. I wanted to read for you before you go, Senator, something that Democratic Congressmen Richie Torres wrote on Twitter. He's from the Bronx. He writes, Donald Trump has no greater friend than the far left, which has managed to alienate historic numbers of Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and Jews from the Democratic Party, with absurdities like defund the police or from the river to the sea or Latinx. There is more to lose than there is to gain politically from pandering to the far left that is more representative of Twitter, Twitch, and TikTok than of the real world. The working class is not buying the ivory towered nonsense that the far left is selling. Do you agree with him? Do you Do you think that the far left is a menace to what Democrats need?

Well, the extreme is extreme, whether it's far left or far right. They're extreme. That's not the mainstream. It's not how we live our lives in most of America. Let me just make sure that everyone understands that we are Americans first. Forget about the Democratic and Public and Party. Those are different ideologies of how you're going to control the problems or how you're going to fix problems and lead. We're Americans first. As an American, I I want my President to succeed. Donald Trump has been a duly elected President of the United States of America. I'm going to do everything I can to hopefully help him be successful. And you got to be able to speak truth to power in the most respectful ways of being contributing and helping. If we can take that attitude now, because when my country does well, my present does well, my state does well. And when it doesn't, it goes to hell in a handbasket. That's the thing I don't want to see happen. I want them to remember that I hope the 60 vote threshold, You know how sacred that is to me, the filibuster, because that's the glue that holds us together in a very political, tough atmosphere.

And I'm hoping that the President Trump will understand how delicate that is and how important it is for him to be able to have something that he might really believe in that gets done with a 60 vote threshold. That's going to be lasting and enduring. You do it with a simple majority, and I'll guarantee you it'll swing back and hit you as fast as it took you somewhere. And we don't want that ping pong back and forth. And that's the difference I had with what was going on, and I thought it was wrong.

All right.

Well, Senator Manchin- God bless America. We're going to make it. We're going to survive, Erin. We're going to be good. We're going to do well. And you know what? We're going to work and try to make our country to come together and work basically for a better tomorrow. But we are going to hold people accountable. And remember, it's the middle that got people elected.

All right. Well, Senator Manchin, thanks. We all appreciate speaking to you, as always. And ahead.