Joe Manchin Warns Democratic Party ‘Toxic’ As He Steps Down From US Senate

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a lifelong Democrat who left the party earlier this year to become an independent and is now stepping down from the Senate after 15 years, is warning about members of his former party.
“The D-brand has been so maligned from the standpoint of – it’s just, it’s toxic,” Manchin told CNN, saying he had not been able to consider himself a Democrat “in the form of what Democratic Party has turned itself into.”