From his roots in West Virginia to his pivotal role in some of Washington's biggest battles,

former Democratic Senator, now independent Joe Manchin, built a career on bucking partisan lines and pushing for pragmatism over ideology.

In his new memoir, he recounts untold stories from the Senate, interactions with the White House,

and outlines a vision of leadership rooted in what he

sees as principle and collaboration. The book is Dead Center in Defense of Common Sense. Former

Senator Joe Manchin joins us now. Welcome back to the NewsHour. Good. Be with you, Jeff.

You know, in reading this book, you are far tougher on Democrats than you are on Republicans. You paint Democrats as the

main driver of government overreach and dysfunction. Was that your intention in writing this book?

Offering a rebuke of your own former party? Well, first of all, I've been a Democrat in my

entire life up until last year. The only people I caucus with the Democrat,

and I saw the dysfunction,

and then basically I couldn't take it anymore.

So I can only give you a synopsis of how do Democrats like me leave?

Now, since the November election,

160,000 plus more have left the Democrat registration.

And I would like to tell all of my friends, Democrat friends, that you've got to figure out what your core is, your base.

When you make a mistake, you just say we made a mistake, and we're going to fix that.

So I never joined another party.

I didn't go to the Republican Party.

And I said, they probably wouldn't like me any better. But I don't know the inner workings of the caucuses of the Republican

Party since I never caucused with them. But I just knew I didn't want to be associated with

this party dysfunction I see on both sides. Well, you said in the book that you actually wanted

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