Sen. Joe Manchin is one of two red state Democrats who has yet to take a public position on Brett Kavanaugh. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo Kavanaugh Confirmation Manchin stays on the fence during Kavanaugh battle 'Joe represents West Virginia. Joe doesn’t represent the Democratic Party,' said Sen. Jon Tester.

With the fate of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh down to a handful of senators, Democrat Joe Manchin is playing coy.

Manchin is one of two red state Democrats — Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota being the other — who have yet to take a public position on Kavanaugh. Both senators are awaiting an FBI report on sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh to be completed before they decide how they’ll vote. Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez have accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct in high school and college, allegations he has strongly denied.


In the midst of a media frenzy, Heitkamp has run away from reporters who want to query her about the controversy surrounding Supreme Court nominee, and her office is tight-lipped about anything related to the nomination.

Manchin, for his part, sounds like he’s leaning “Yes,” and it certainly is gettable for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the GOP leadership. It’s clear Manchin doesn’t want to be the 50th vote for Kavanaugh, but it seems like he’d be OK with being the 51st or 52nd, barring any new developments.

President Donald Trump has also personally discussed Kavanaugh’s confirmation with Manchin, according to Manchin’s aides, one of the president’s few forays into a Senate battle he’s mainly lobbed verbal grenades at from afar.

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“Senator Manchin and President Trump have a relationship and have talked recently about a number of different topics,” said Jonathan Kott, Manchin’s communications director.

Other red state Democrats say it won’t matter to them if Manchin votes for Kavanaugh. And they point out that Manchin will do whatever he needs to do, regardless of what fellow Democrats — and the increasingly progressive party base — think of him.

“Joe represents West Virginia. Joe doesn’t represent the Democratic Party,” said Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, another Democrat running for reelection this year from a solidly red state. “Joe’s gotta do what Joe thinks is right for West Virginia. That’s it. I’ll do the same thing for Montana.”

Yet in a party moving decidedly leftward, Manchin finds himself in a shrinking group of Democrats willing to engage with Trump. That personal animosity toward Trump, made even more acute in this case by the president’s attacks on Ford during a rally on Tuesday night, overwhelms nearly everything else inside in the party. Except if you’re a senator up for reelection in a state that Trump won by 42 points in 2016.

In multiple conversations, Manchin said he doesn’t want to downplay the sexual abuse allegations from Ford and Ramirez, which he called “terrible.”

Manchin also called Trump’s taunts of Ford “awful … very wrong.”

Yet Machin openly empathizes with Kavanaugh as well, noting that the accusations against the current appeals court judge stem from his youth, not from his adult life.

“I can understand also a person [Kavanaugh] who from 22 to 53, how he’s conducted his life, how he took care of his family, how he basically approached his job in a responsible manner,” Manchin said. “I’m not hearing anything from the 30 years as an adult, in his professional life.”

Manchin said he related to Kavanaugh’s anger at the sexual misconduct allegations as well, pointing out that they both have daughters. The West Virginia Democrat said he wasn’t excusing Kavanaugh’s emotional response during last Thursday’s extraordinary hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee. But he understood it.

“Basically, it was somebody who is the father of two young girls fighting back, saying, ‘That’s not the dad I am, that’s not the person I am,’” Manchin said. “That’s what I saw.”

As for whether backing Kavanaugh will help him politically, Manchin insists it won't have an impact either way and isn't the driving force in how he will vote. The Manchin campaign released a poll on Wednesday that showed him up 12 points on Republican West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrissey with a month to go, meaning that the Kavanaugh confirmation fight is unlikely to matter significantly anyway.

“I am who I am, and people know who I am,” Manchin said. “We’ll just see what happens. I’m not doing anything until I see the report. Nothing until I see the report. Not even talk. I am totally undecided.”

In an interview, Morrisey, who is running against Manchin in the Senate race, blamed Manchin — in part — for the Kavanaugh debacle.

According to Morrisey, if Manchin had come out in support of Kavanaugh’s nomination earlier, it could have prevented the spectacle of a last-minute FBI probe into the sexual misconduct allegations.

“Joe Manchin is waiting until the outcome is decided before he reveals his vote,” Morrisey said. “It’s gutless. Joe is capable of leading, and he’s simply giving Chuck Schumer and the radical liberals more time to obstruct and go after Kavanaugh.”

Manchin, however, shrugs off the criticism, which is easier to do when you’re that far ahead in the polls.

“The only poll that counts is Election Day,” Manchin said. “I just don’t have a whole lot to say about it. I’ll get myself in trouble.”

Top Democrats, from Schumer on down, don’t want to discuss Manchin’s potential support for Kavanaugh. Senior party aides privately say they’d like to see the Republicans’ undecided senators — Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska or Jeff Flake of Arizona — be the 50th vote for Kavanaugh, although that may make little difference to a party base fueled by its opposition to Trump.

“Manchin will do what Manchin always does, which is look at all the facts, get the information from the FBI report, and make up his mind,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “My view is that this story has a lot more running to do, so let’s see how it all plays out.”

Yet Manchin — and by extension, Heitkamp — won’t face criticism from their red state colleagues over how they vote on Kavanaugh, either pro or con.

“Every state has different views, a different electorate,” said Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.). “The folks in those states are gonna do what’s best for the people, as they think, in that state.”

Burgess Everett contributed reporting to this report.