Video has resurfaced of Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin telling his constituents in April he would vote against funding President Trump’s proposed wall on the southern border.
“I’m not voting for the wall,” he says in the footage of a town hall meeting in Parkersburg, which resurfaced after Vice President Mike Pence brought up his position on the wall in a critique of his positions Wednesday. Manchin told Fox News last week he supports a wall “in certain places” and plans to work with Trump “any way I can,” and has said he is seeking re-election.
Pence criticized Manchin for voting against the Republican tax cut, against repealing Obamacare and and against defunding Planned Parenthood on Twitter, and then referenced the town hall. “And when it comes to securing our Southern border, Joe said, ‘I’m not voting for the wall, either,'” Pence wrote.
When the time came to repeal & replace the disaster of Obamacare, Joe voted NO. When we empowered West Virginia to defund Planned Parenthood, Joe voted NO. And when it comes to securing our Southern border, Joe said, “I’m not voting for the wall, either.” #JoeVotedNo
— Vice President Mike Pence Archived (@VP45) January 31, 2018
Pence said Thursday he plans to spend time campaigning against Democrats in the states Trump won in 2016, including West Virginia.
“I expect we’re going to spend a fair amount of time in the states that the president carried very strongly — Indiana being one of them, West Virginia here being another, places like Montana, elsewhere around the country we think represent a real opportunity for us,” Pence said in an interview from West Virginia with Politico.
Donald Trump has an approval rating of 61 percent in West Virginia — the highest of any state in the country.
