http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/239365-manchin-reids-leadership-did-not-work By David McCabe - 04/20/15 07:49 AM EDT
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) leadership when Democrats controlled the Senate did not work, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) said on Monday.
"Well first of all, Harry’s a good man,” Manchin, who just announced he will run for reelection, said while appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “His leadership and the things he thought would work did not. So with that, you just move on.”
Reid was majority leader until earlier this year. He has said he does not intend to run for reelection in 2016 and will be replaced in leadership by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D.N.Y.).
Manchin, a moderate, said that with Republicans in control of the upper chamber, he now has the opportunity to work with the majority to get legislation passed.
“But me walking away, I think, would be much worse when I have a chance to make a difference,” he said. “I’m in the middle now, they’re looking for somebody in the middle, they need six of me to make something work.”
The comments come a day after Manchin said he would not leave the Senate to run for governor of West Virginia, which he had considered.
“I feel that I can have the greatest impact on West Virginia and America by staying in Washington,” he said during an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “This place may not be working now, but I’m not going to stop fighting to make it work.”
