"I don't know if Joe [Manchin] will ever become a Republican but I can tell you this for sure, the moderates are gone," the Republican Senate minority leader told Fox News in an interview with The Guy Benson Show Monday.
"There are two left in the Senate – two moderates out of 50," McConnell said, citing Manchin and Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona. "There were more moderate Democrats when Barack Obama was president than there are today."
The Kentucky Senator told the radio host: "[I]t's a completely uncomfortable fit for Joe. I think he's probably, for example, the only pro-life Democrat of the 50."
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"He doesn't fit well over there but that's a decision, ultimately, he has to make. We'd certainly welcome him to join us if he was so inclined," McConnell said.
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In his radio interview, Manchin suggested Democrats would have to kick him out of the party when he was asked: "Is there still a place for you in the Democratic Party?"
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"[I] would like to hope that there's still Democrats that feel like I do [belong]," Manchin responded.
"I feel I'm socially – I'm fiscally responsible and socially compassionate,' the West Virginia centrist added. "Now if there's no Democrats like that, then they have to push me wherever they want me."
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The criticism against Manchin ensued Sunday when he ultimately came out definitively against Biden's $1.75 trillion Build Back Better social spending and welfare package. He told Fox host Bret Bair on Fox New on Sunday that he was a "no."
"I've always said this," Manchin described on the program, "If I can't go home and explain it to the people of West Virginia, I can't vote for it."
"I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation," he claimed. "I just can't. I've tried everything humanly possible. I can't get there."
Baier pushed: "You're done. This is a no?" "This is a no," he confirmed.
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Progressives were immediately outraged at Manchin's statements and the White House grilled the Senator at the center of BBB negotiations.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki lamented on Sunday: "Senator Manchin promised to continue conversations in the days ahead, and to work with us to reach that common ground."
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