Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia apparently isn’t hopping on the Koch Obsession bandwagon with some of his colleagues.
When asked in a FOX News interview whether he thinks it helps or hurts the cause for the country and for Congress when Harry Reid continually brings up the Koch brothers, Manchin was critical of the recent rhetoric and didn’t seem to think it did anything to help in moving the country forward.
If you’re trying to rally the base, the bases have already been rallied, the right and the left base has been rallied. It’s us in the middle that have to start making something happen here in Washington to move this country forward. People want jobs.You don’t beat up people. I mean, I don’t agree with their [the Kochs’] politics or philosophically, but, you know, they’re Americans, they’re doing…paying their taxes, they’re not breaking the law. They’re providing jobs. Right, wrong or indifferent, whether you like their politics or not, there’s people who don’t like the extreme Democrat politics or extreme Republican politics. We’ve got to start being Americans again.[…] I’m in an environment right now, every day we’re expected to go out and raise money to be spent against our colleagues and go out and campaign against them, and then on Monday come back and say, ‘Hey buddy, will you work with me, will you go ahead and sign this bill’… that doesn’t work back in West Virginia, we weren’t raised that way. So this type of rhetoric does not help us move this country or move the agenda forward.
Watch the full exchange below.
Video h/t Washington Free Beacon
A spokesman for Koch Industries responded, via Politico:
A spokesman for Koch Industries said “it’s about time” somebody spoke out against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s attacks on the Koch brothers, saying such jabs are expected on the trail, but the Senate floor should not be the venue.“I get politics and I think the American public expects that in election years, when you’re out on campaign trail, politics will be invoked,” Steve Lombardo said in an interview, regarding the Democratic senator’s recent hits against the Koch brothers.“But to be doing it on the floor of the United States Senate repeatedly? It’s about time somebody questioned that,” he said.
More of Lombardo’s response at Politico.
[Featured image: FOX News video, via Politico]
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY