Former Sen. Joe Manchin, a lifelong Democrat who left the party in 2024, said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s statement opposing a resolution honoring Charlie Kirk is a sign the Democratic Party is “getting worse, not better.”
Manchin’s remarks came during an interview with CNN’s Kasie Hunt, when the host asked for his reaction to her statement, which condemned political violence but criticized the late Turning Point USA founder, misrepresenting his position on the Civil Rights Act and ignoring the context in which his comments about Paul Pelosi’s attacker were made.
“First of all, I just saw a little while ago, and I was stunned, Kasie. I really was,” Manchin told Hunt. “This is not the place and the time for that at all. If the Democrats — if AOC and the far Left, the extreme Left I want to say — believe that’s where the party, the Democratic Party, is today, then that’ll tell you why you lost people like me, and an awful lot.
"And let me tell you what you’ve lost since the last election," he continued, "they’ve been doing their national tour and thinking, boy, that’s something, we’re really getting into something. The Democratic Party has lost more than 160,000 Democrats that have basically left the party since the November election. So if that’s the way the Democrat Party is going, it’s getting worse, not better.”
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Former Democrat Senator Joe Manchin TORCHES AOC over her vile rhetoric about Charlie Kirk during a vote to condemn his assassination:
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 19, 2025
“If that’s the way the Democrat Party is going, it’s getting worse, not better.” pic.twitter.com/D7W18ohKlN
AOC was not the only Democrat to condemn Kirk in statements explaining their opposition to the resolution. Reps. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), and others criticized him as well.
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