Let me just get this out of the way, right out of the chute: I've never understood why anyone takes Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) seriously. His both-sides-against-the-middle routine is as tired as it is predictable. 

Toss in Manchin's teases about possibly leaving the Democrat Party, encouraging dialogue about a potential third-party presidential election campaign, and mercurial comments about how he'll vote on key pieces of legislation, and, in my view, it's a fool's game to believe anything that comes out of his mouth.

This brings us to Manchin's interview with ex-CNN host Chris Cuomo on his current gig, NewsNation’s “Cuomo." Cuomo kicked off the festivities with a surprisingly balanced question.

I want the audience to know, on a regular basis, Sen. Manchin will say to me, "You bash Congress too much, Cuomo —, we got more done in the 117th Congress than I’ve seen in a long time. And you have to give us our due." 

So, make the connection for me, senator. What do you believe got done that matters so much, especially for the Democrats’ message, and why do people have such a negative impression of the sitting president, President Biden, when it comes to getting things done in the economy?

Manchin, sporting his "It's the Messaging, Stupid" hat [sarc], responded by first blaming the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and so-called "insurrection" for the disastrous effects of Bidenomics — and the belief held by roughly three-quarters of Americans that the country is on the wrong track. 

First of all, I think messaging is the biggest problem. If you’re not basically laying out what you’re trying to accomplish, and then when you do accomplish it, you succeed at something. So, first of all, let’s take January 6, that happened, Chris, it was for real. The insurrection was for real. I was here. As much as I would have liked to think they were coming to visit me and all the other senators and congresspeople, that wasn’t the case. We saw it live and personal. 

A complete crock of crap, with respect to the January 6 riot impacting the U.S. economy — much less that it continues to impact the economy.

Manchin then absurdly suggested Congress passed The Electoral Count Act in 2022 to "prevent that from ever happening" again.

So, with that being said, we passed the Electoral Count Act to prevent that from ever happening or giving…the impetus for a group of people thinking we can stop this transfer of power, let’s just go grab the ballot box, let’s stop that, the counting of the — the official counting of the ballots. We’ve stopped that from happening. And we did it in a bipartisan way with about 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans working through a bunch of iterations of what we should do.

Wrong. The Electoral Count Act was passed in 1887. Congress in 2022 passed the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act, which principally clarified the intent of the 1887 Act. 

That said, whether or not the 2022 legislation would have prevented the breach of the Capitol Building by avid Trump supporters is unknowable. That is, unless it happens again, of course. 

You can watch the segment in the link, below.

Manchin: Messaging Is ‘Biggest‘ Reason Biden Has Negative Economic Ratings, He‘s Done Many Good Things https://t.co/jOJ0YG8R3U via @BreitbartNews

— MikesRight (@RealLibSmacker) October 4, 2023

Finally, Manchin ran through a litany of "examples"  of the awesomeness of Congress, and the legislation it's passed during the Biden administration, in an effort to -- in effect -- say: "Don't believe your lying eyes."

We’ve done an energy bill. We’d never done an energy bill for 30 years. We did that. And then we did — on top of that, we did the CHIPS Act. And basically, we were — just the supply chain, and what COVID showed us [was] that we were so reliant on foreign suppliers that [don’t] have our values. China doesn’t have our values. Russia doesn’t have our values. Iran doesn’t have our values, North Korea. 

So, Chris, what we’ve done is said, we’ve got to start bringing that production, the building blocks of America that we need every day to operate and maintain the superpower status that we have, that we’ve got to rely on ourselves and our best trading partners that we have that we’ve always relied on, our NATO allies, things of that sort. … And then we did the bipartisan infrastructure bill. And we all knew we had to do that.

Again, Joe, Americans who are struggling to make ends meet don't believe your lying eyes.

Incidentally, I wonder if Joe checked with the other Joe before blaming China -- in part -- for the disastrous Biden economy. 

Meanwhile, Manchin was last seen holding a finger (on his left hand) in the wind.