Former senator Joe Manchin makes the case for the middle in the memoir 'Dead Center'

NPR's Book of the Day

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Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

Former West Virginia senator Joseph Manchin III was a gadfly in the ear of his own Democratic party for many years, and a sometime Republican ally. Manchin’s new memoir, Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense, is packed with stories about his relationships with the likes of President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden. In this interview with NPR’s Michel Martin, Manchin explains why this country needs an “American independent party."

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, you're listening to Book of the Day. I'm Chloe Veltman. Joe Manchin has long been a hard-to-pin-down kind of guy. The former West Virginia Democratic Senator turned independent was over the years a thorn in his party side. He voted against Democratic Party lines on issues like climate change, and he backed Trump nominee Brett
0:21.9	Kavanaugh for a seat on the Supreme Court. In his new memoir titled Dead Center, Manchin explains
0:28.0	why centriism is so important to him. He spills about his years in the Senate and his quest to
0:33.0	defend West Virginia priorities, like coal mining. Manchin spoke with NPR's Michelle Martin about his life and politics
0:40.0	and told her what the country really needs right now is an independent party in charge.
0:45.1	That's ahead.
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1:17.4	How to describe Joe Manchin.
1:19.5	To many Republicans, the now retired West Virginia Senator, was an occasional ally.
1:24.1	To many diehard Democrats, he might have been a troublesome rogue who couldn't be counted on.
1:28.9	But before Manchin served in state office and 15 years in the U.S. Senate, first as a Democrat and then
	...

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