Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and former Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) lamented the state of Congress in a side-by-side interview Sunday, with Manchin saying Americans should be “ashamed” of the legislative body.
“Every one of us should be ashamed of what we’re, what we’re living through now in the 118th Congress,” Manchin said in the CNN interview with Manu Raju.
The House has struggled to pass any legislation for months, relying on short-term funding deals and constantly under threat of a shifting Speakership. Portman described Congress as “dysfunctional.”
The moderates said in the interview they were both disappointed with their parties. Manchin has long clashed with the Biden administration, and Portman was an opponent of former President Trump before he retired from the Senate following the 2022 election.
Neither committed to endorsing Biden or Trump. Manchin said Biden “has to take blame for what is wrong” regarding immigration and border policy, but added that there is also blame to be laid on House Republicans, who shot down a bipartisan Senate border security bill earlier this year.
“Whatever Joe Biden has done that was wrong and gets blamed for, it’s worse now that we know we can fix it and it’s done in a bipartisan way, and you won’t accept it,” Manchin said.
Portman added that an air of bipartisanship, which he reveled in during his Senate career, is now missing.
“You can be MAGA Republican, you can be a progressive Democrat, but if you’re willing to look at your job as solving problems, then you figure out how to find common ground,” Portman said. “And that needs to be the overriding concern. I worry that that is in short supply in the Senate today.”
Manchin announced earlier this year that he will not run for reelection this November, likely leaving his seat to a Republican. The move has made the race for the Senate majority even tighter, as both parties battle over swing states.