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Seeming to fulfill the adage that familiarity breeds contempt, Joe Manchin III, the former senator from West Virginia, has a lot of not-so-fond things to say about the Democratic Party in which he served as a stubborn centrist for more than four decades and then re-registered as an independent in May 2024.
In a lengthy interview last week aboard his boat, Almost Heaven, docked on Washington’s Wharf, Mr. Manchin, 78, said of former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., “I just think he lost the will to fight” the progressives in his party.
He criticized Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader, as a partisan warrior bent on “retaliation against Republicans.”
He said that after Mr. Biden dropped out of the 2024 race following his disastrous debate performance against Donald J. Trump, he briefly considered running against Vice President Kamala Harris “as an independent Democrat” until it was evident the party was coalescing around her.
He acknowledged that he is considering running as a third-party candidate in 2028.
The occasion for Mr. Manchin’s disgruntled musings was his new book, “Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense,” which St. Martin’s Press is publishing on Tuesday.
Never one to shy from a microphone, the voluble Mr. Manchin over his 14 years in the Senate was often a pivotal figure in big-ticket legislative negotiations, from infrastructure to gun safety, when he butted heads with liberals. He also came under criticism for protecting his state’s coal interests.
Even so, what fidelity he did show to the Democrats was sufficient to make his re-election chances in deep-red West Virginia last year implausible. He announced in November 2023 that he would not seek another term in the Senate.
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His book features profanity-laced quarrels with Mr. Biden over the high price tag of the president’s marquee legislation, including the American Rescue Plan to address economic hardships from the pandemic and the Build Back Better social spending bill. By contrast, the book is light on criticism of President Trump, who carried Mr. Manchin’s state by nearly 42 points over Ms. Harris in the 2024 election.
In the interview, Mr. Manchin referred to Mr. Trump as “the most engaging president I’d ever worked with.” (The distinction clears a low bar given Mr. Manchin’s chilly relationship with President Barack Obama and Mr. Biden frequent irritation with him.)
He said that he first met Mr. Trump while serving as West Virginia’s governor in 2009 and called him to see if he would be interested in acquiring the state’s renowned Greenbrier Resort, which was then mired in financial difficulty. According to Mr. Manchin, Mr. Trump demurred, though he did flatter the governor by saying at the outset: “I know who you are. You’re the conservative Democrat. That’s what I am.”
But Mr. Manchin said he was now having a few second thoughts about Mr. Trump, a view that will bring on Democratic eye-rolling about a Johnny-come-lately.
“I really don’t like the way he and his family are using the power of the office to enrich themselves,” Mr. Manchin said. “It’s just not right.”
As his book’s title suggests, Mr. Manchin sees himself as a practitioner of “common sense” and has come to believe that Mr. Trump has deviated from that standard. Of Mr. Trump’s cordial relationship with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, Mr. Manchin expressed bafflement: “I have no idea what to make of it. But it’s absolutely wrong. Putin is nothing but what he’s revealed himself to be.”
It also upsets him that Mr. Trump has in his view focused more of his ire on traditional American allies than on adversaries like Russia and North Korea. “Why the hell would you pick on Canada?” he asked.
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Still, Mr. Manchin hardly sounded remorseful about leaving the Democratic Party. Instead, he said he regretted succumbing to partisan pressure and voting for Mr. Trump’s first impeachment in early 2020 and, a year later, for Mr. Biden’s American Rescue Plan. Both legislative acts “never should have happened,” he said.
Though his book does not address Mr. Biden’s declining health, Mr. Manchin said in the interview that he had spent two hours in early March 2024 discussing the upcoming election with the president in the White House residence “and he sounded totally fine,” as he said he had in prior encounters.
But three months later, Mr. Manchin concluded with alarm after watching Mr. Biden’s debate performance on June 27 that the incumbent had suffered from “a health episode” and that there was “no way” he could continue as the party’s nominee. Still, Mr. Manchin waited until July 21 to express that sentiment publicly, on three of the major Sunday news shows. By that time, Mr. Biden was already preparing to announce his withdrawal.
Mr. Manchin said that he was not one of the 100 or so political leaders whom Ms. Harris called on the heels of Mr. Biden’s announcement to ask for their support. Nor, he added, did she ever make such a request of him during her abbreviated 107-day presidential campaign. Her defeat in November, he said, was a judgment more on her party than her candidacy: “The brand is just so bad.”
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Mr. Manchin acknowledged discussing a presidential run of his own early last year, on the ticket of the nonpartisan group No Labels. That effort quickly fell apart, Mr. Manchin said, “when I started hearing that they wanted a Republican on the top of the ticket. I said: ‘I thought you called yourself No Labels. Why not just get the best person?’”
Though he will be 81 by the time of the November 2028 election, Mr. Manchin said that in mulling a third-party run, his objective was “for the middle to compete.” Mr. Manchin did not appear particularly cowed by the potential Republican field, led by two former Senate colleagues, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, both of whom he called “aloof.”
Asked about the possibility that Mr. Trump might decide to run for a third term in defiance of constitutional obstacles, the self-described defender of common sense shook his head. “I pray to God that he doesn’t even try to go there,” Mr. Manchin said quietly.
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Robert Draper is based in Washington and writes about domestic politics. He is the author of several books and has been a journalist for three decades.
