"We must work to unite a country that has been so divided throughout this long election," said Sen. Joe Manchin. | Getty Manchin slams Reid on Trump comments: 'An absolute embarrassment'

West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin sharply criticized his own party leader on Friday evening, calling Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's reaction to Donald Trump's election "an absolute embarrassment to the Senate as an institution, our Democratic party, and the nation."

Manchin is one of the chamber's most conservative Democrats and must convince hundreds of thousands of Trump voters to reelect him in 2018. The outgoing Democratic leader, however, is one of Trump's most persistent critics and has spoken out against Trump on the Senate floor repeatedly this year. On Friday Reid called Trump a "sexual predator who lost the popular vote," perhaps the harshest reaction to Trump's victory uttered by a congressional Democratic this week.


Manchin said that Reid's remarks were "wrong!" and immediately moved to distance himself from the Democratic leader. Though Manchin voted against Reid as party leader in 2014, Manchin's criticisms of Reid were usually more mild than Friday's remarks.

"I want to be very clear, he does not speak for me. As difficult as it is for anyone to lose an election, the American people have spoken and Donald Trump is our President-elect. Senator Reid’s words needlessly feed the very divisiveness that is tearing this country apart," Manchin said. "We are Americans first, not Democrats or Republicans first. Unfortunately, there are some who forget that at times like these it is wrong to put party and politics above our country.”

Trump walloped Clinton in West Virginia on Tuesday, drawing more than 68 percent of the vote to Hillary Clinton's 26 percent. Manchin had been a steady surrogate of Clinton's despite his state's rightward tilt, but now is caught in the middle of his party's march to the left.

Manchin generally opposes abortion rights and has never said whether he voted for President Barack Obama in 2012. But on Tuesday evening as several publications reported Manchin was considering caucusing with Senate Republicans, Manchin said he would stay a Democrat as long as he is a senator.

And Manchin is far from alone among Democrats in having to cater politically to Trump voters. 10 Democrats from states Trump won are up for reelection in 2018, including several like Manchin from deeply conservative areas: Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Jon Tester of Montana, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. Heitkamp issued a statement on Friday evening that was highly conciliatory -- particular compared to Reid's.

“It’s time to move forward. We must work to unite a country that has been so divided throughout this long election, and that will be President-elect Trump’s primary task. As I said back in May, if Donald Trump is elected president – as he was – there will be an opportunity to sit down and have a conversation about what that agenda looks like. We’re going to have disagreements, but we better all figure out how to come up with an agenda for the American people," Heitkamp said.