Joe Manchin was Al Franken's Biggest Defender in the Senate [View all]

[JI7]

“What they did to Al was atrocious, the Democrats,” West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin said in an interview on Politico‘s Off Message podcast. “The most hypocritical thing I’ve ever seen done to a human being.”

Manchin was one of few Democrat who did not urge Franken to leave the Senate. In the interview with Politico, the West Virginia Democrat said seeing his colleagues hug Franken after his resignation speech on the Senate floor “made me sick.”

“That’s hypocrisy at the highest level I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said. ” I think it’s atrocious. We ran a good person off.”

Manchin noted that Franken was willing to go through Congress’ ethics investigation process and deal with whatever consequences came of that before he was urged to leave. The Democrat said he hopes Franken does not ultimately resign.

“I hope they have enough guts. If they had enough guts and enough conscience and enough heart to say, ‘Al, we made a mistake asking prematurely for you to leave,” Manchin said of his colleagues.

http://time.com/5069058/al-franken-resign-joe-manchin/