- Incumbent Sen. Joe Manchin defeated Republican challenger and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey in the West Virginia Senate race on Tuesday.
- In his victory speech, Manchin slammed President Donald Trump for not being able to use his power unseat him.
- Trump visited the state multiple times to stump for Morrisey, and several other White House officials and Trump family members campaigned against Manchin.
CHARLESTON, West Virginia - Minutes after securing reelection Tuesday night, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin took a harsher tone against President Donald Trump by blasting him for the failure of his Republican challenger and ardent White House ally in West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.
Manchin barbed the president for not being able to get Morrisey over the finish line, despite the state having voted for Trump by more than 40 points one election ago.
"Let me say that I never expected that this race would be the national race it turned out to be," he said in his victory speech. "I never expected President Trump to come to this state as much as he did, sending Vice President Pence, sending his family time after time. And you stood tall."
"What you said. What West Virginia said loud and clear tonight, 'Mr. President, we want our senator, not your senator,'" Manchin added.
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The incumbent Democrat also condemned "toxic rhetoric" and demanded Trump play a more unifying role.
"When I raise my hand and swear to God to uphold the Constitution, that's for everybody. That is for everybody. And we've got to stop this absolute toxic rhetoric that's going on in this country. We have got to stop this toxic rhetoric," he said. "We've got to bring people together. Mr. President, I want you to be a president of the United States, not the divided states."
After his speech, Manchin told Business Insider that "no one's ever won in a state where the president had a 42-point spread," repeating his claim that voters rejected Trump's choice of candidate.
But Manchin said he was not worried his harsher tone against Trump would upset the president, who often lashes out at critics and those who downplay his status as a GOP kingmaker.
"I'm not angry because he came here so many times," Manchin said of Trump's repeated visits to West Virginia to stump for Morrisey. "Why should he be angry that I'm telling the truth? I don't think so."
Manchin had previously railed against Pence for coming to West Virginia, equating him to a "junkyard dog" doing Trump's bidding.
"Mike Pence, I know Mike Pence and he's just - I guess - doing his job," Manchin said. "Well, he's a junkyard dog right now I guess. He has to go out and do it."
Manchin was the only Democrat to vote for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, after the then-nominee had become embroiled in multiple sexual misconduct accusations that prompted additional hearings and nearly split vote in the Senate.
In contrast, Morrisey ran on the premise that he would be Trump's greatest ally in the Senate, even labeling the final leg of his campaign tour as the "Stand with Trump Tour."
"Everyone who follows the race knows I'm the conservative fire who's going to advance the Trump jobs agenda and Joe Manchin's a dishonest Washington liberal, who's going to empower the impeach, obstruct, and resist circus in DC," Morrisey told Business Insider in an October interview in Parkersburg, West Virginia.
Trump campaigned for Morrisey days before the election at a large rally in Huntington, while his son, Donald Trump, Jr., stumped for the Republican several times in the final weeks of the cycle.
But, like Manchin said, it was simply not enough.