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Sen. Joe Manchin, D-Va., spoke at the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, France, on Thursday, praising President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron for their apolitical speeches and telling Newsmax’s John Hardy that it’s important to remain “always vigilant.”
“They all said the right things,” said Manchin, who recently announced he would switch to independent rather than Democrat. “They all said the right things about what we’ve done for our country, how we’ve essentially served, and what sacrifices we’ve made.”
Biden has publicly opposed isolating the United States, and Manchin agreed.
“The whole world depends on us,” he said. “You can’t be a world superpower by being isolated, so I don’t want to think about politics. That’s why I became an independent, because I’m so tired. Politics is weaponized not just in the United States but around the world. You have to choose a side and the other side should be the enemy? That’s not who we are.”
Manchin added that Democrats and Republicans should come together to solve the country’s problems.
“I just want to spend the rest of my life working to bring this country together so that we can continue to be the superpower of the world,” he said.
Manchin said he has no plans to run for public office, presidential or otherwise, after his current term as senator ends, but he insisted he has been a lifelong independent.
“When I say I’ve always voted independently, I’ve never been driven by any party,” Manchin said. “I don’t look at politics from a partisan perspective. I don’t and I never have, but I want to make sure that I end my career the way that I’ve always felt in my heart, the way that I voted, and the way that I’ve committed to the people that I represent, my state of West Virginia and my country.”
He also decried the divisions between those who support Biden and those who supported former President Donald Trump.
“I’ve worked with both of them,” Manchin said. “There’s merit to both of them, and I agree with them and I disagree with them. But can’t we at least sit down and talk as adults and try to understand each other? I’m tired of the name calling, the accusations and the basically belittling of each other.”
Manchin, meanwhile, said he felt the most moving part of the ceremony was when Macron presented each U.S. veteran with the nation’s highest honor, the Napoleon Bonaparte Award, and the way he embraced each one.
Manchin also noted that as he walked through the Normandy countryside he was surprised to realize he was walking along the same path the troops had taken 80 years earlier and pondered how they had been ambushed.
“All the people who died on those roads, the sound of artillery, my goodness, the sound of machine gun fire,” he said. “The most important thing is that we never forget this. Eighty years ago, things could have ended very differently.”
Manchin also pointed out that veterans of invasion wars lied as teenagers to get into the war, “but no one ever complained or blamed anyone else.”
“It was the last truly meaningful war we had,” he said. “It liberated them from the tyranny that was in place at the time.”
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades of journalism experience and currently works as a general articles writer for Newsmax, covering news, media, and politics.
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