Over the past few days, a controversy has erupted over West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin’s supposed opinion on the border wall. In January, Manchin (a Democrat) said he supports a border wall in an interview on Fox and Friends. But a recent super PAC ad that says he doesn’t support the border wall which is important in a state where Trump won by a large margin and where (the reduction of illegal) immigration is viewed as an important issue. Manchin is trying to remove the ad from TV and has a press release here.
Manchin definitely voted yes for cloture on an amendment to the Broader Options for Americans Act that supported increased border security (including physical structures like walls). The amendment didn’t move any further in the bill making process. But to make things complicated Manchin was quoted in a Politico article from last July as saying: (he’s) “not been supportive of funding for a wall.” and “It’s something I have no interest in. I just think we have so many other pressing problems and I think there are other ways immigration needs to be treated.”. I am curious why there was a change in Manchin’s position It’s fine that he changed his mind, but I think he will need to explain the older comments against the wall and increased border security so that he doesn’t look like he changed his mind to attract voters.
I had some trouble sorting out both sides of the story because there was some spin on both sides. The Republican PAC was trying to sway Trump voters to not vote for Manchin, but they didn’t mention the GOP candidate. And Manchin was trying to point out his support for Trump’s immigration agenda, but I personally feel like he didn’t explain his previous comments in the Politico article, and I generally trust Politico as a news source. Hopefully, some new polls will come out so we can see what the voters think about this. I can see some more attack ads coming out about this topic, but it always difficult to guess how voters will react.
Political Bias Disclosure: Since I am a strong believer in transparency in the discussion of politics, I would like to disclose that I am a moderate Republican. I try to remain unbiased and look at the issues like a voter in that election.
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