Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) refused to tell MSNBC whom he voted for on Tuesday.
“Can we ask, did you vote for Barack Obama?” Andrea Mitchell asked the senator yesterday.
“Andrea, here’s the thing that we’ve talked about is that the election, this has been so divisive and we’re thinking about the future and how we bring the country together and I’m committed to working with the president any way, shape and form, as I can, to rebuild this country and I’ve committed to that,” Manchin responded. “And I will work with him. And I would have done the same if Governor Romney would have.”
Manchin skipped the Democratic National Convention and remained mum on any support for Obama.
He told Mitchell he “didn’t feel compelled” to endorse Obama.
“I had problems, as you know, basically with the fiscal cliff that we face. I really feel we can do more and should do an awful lot more to try to bring some balance to that,” Manchin said. “…Also the environmental and energy policy. I want a balance between the economy and the environment.”
“I’m willing to work with him. I’ve tried to. And I believe the EPA has overreached. I believe there’s a balance to be found.”
The senator told the Charleston Daily Mail editorial board last month that he was “very disappointed” with Obama.
Manchin called himself “the most bipartisan centrist senator in the Senate right now,” though he’ll have to compete with Maine Sen.-elect Angus King, an independent, for that title in the 113th Congress.
Manchin handily defeated Republican John Raese on Tuesday, 60.5 percent to 36.5 percent.
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