Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Sunday said he doesn’t think Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) would follow Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) in leaving the Democratic Party.
“I’ve known Joe Manchin for a long time, he was my mentor governor when I got elected in 2009. He’s never going to be a Republican in my view,” Christie said on ABC’s “This Week.” …
Christie’s comments on ABC came after Sinema, who was elected to the Senate as a Democrat in 2018, announced on Friday she was leaving the party to become an Independent.
“I think Joe Manchin is a Democrat going all the way back to his mom and dad, it’s part of who he is,” Christie said on ABC. “He’s a different kind of Democrat than the Washington Democrats today, but he also showed that six years ago he’s a very formidable candidate as a Democrat in a state that Donald Trump won by 40 points.”
[He might not flip to the GOP, but he could follow Sinema into independent status — and use that to force both sides to dance to their tune. I wrote about that on Friday. — Ed]
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