{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.manchin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=23307b03-9446-467a-9428-dd2459c04848", "Media attention keeps focus on Manchin | Charleston Daily Mail", "2013-12-09", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WV", "Joe Manchin", "M001183", "www.manchin.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 09, 2013\n\t\t\t Media attention keeps focus on Manchin | Charleston Daily Mail \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tNone of the members of the national television crew with Sen. Joe Manchin had ever fired a gun.\r\nSo instead of just shooting extra footage of the Democrat expending a few rounds, the Fox News team joined Manchin Thursday morning in firing away.\r\n\u201cThey did good. The girls about showed us all up,\u201d Manchin said later that afternoon, after an interview with the station.\r\nIf people outside of West Virginia know about Manchin, there\u2019s a good chance it\u2019s because of guns.\r\nThey might recall a campaign advertisement from 2010, when a rifle-toting Manchin blasted a hole through a piece of legislation.\r\nBut West Virginia\u2019s junior senator gained national attention more recently for his proposal in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy.\r\nThe measure called for background checks on people purchasing guns online or at trade shows.\r\nIt failed by a handful of votes in the Senate, but a $200,000 advertising battle between the National Rifle Association and Manchin helped keep the idea front and center on the country\u2019s political landscape.\r\nThat attention took the measure and debate to \u201ca whole other dimension,\u201d Manchin said.\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s funny, when you evaluate it on that level, there are so few people I guess that are going based on the facts and their convictions, of trying to do and improve things,\u201d Manchin said.\r\n\u201c(They) worry more about how it will affect them personally or their political stature or their political standing in the party.\r\n\u201cAnd I\u2019ve never put that ahead of what I was there to do. I think that\u2019s what\u2019s kind of elevated it. It\u2019s an anomaly right now. I don\u2019t think it used to always be that way.\u201d\r\nManchin, 66, is still relatively new in Washington, D.C. Heading to Capitol Hill in late 2010 for the remainder of the late Sen. Robert Byrd\u2019s unexpired term, Manchin won his first election to a full Senate term last fall.\r\nThursday he downplayed the idea that the political cover of no imminent campaign made it easier for him to introduce the background check bill this year. The only thing that matters is whether he can explain his decisions \u201cback home.\u201d\r\nHe brought those explanations to a crowd of local politicians, law enforcement officers, lobbyists and others during Thursday\u2019s lunch meeting at the Fifth Quarter restaurant in Charleston.\r\nThe group included Charleston Mayor Danny Jones, Kanawha Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Bailey, Sheriff Johnny Rutherford, Kanawha County Schools Superintendent Ron Duerring, state AFL-CIO President Kenny Perdue and others.\r\nThe senator bounced from topic to topic. The nation\u2019s finances are his key focus, but he\u2019s very committed to fixing the national health care law and to helping veterans find jobs, he told the room.\r\nOft-used phrases found their way into the conversation: Manchin described an idea as a \u201ccommonsense\u201d measure. The concept of \u201cguilt by association\u201d has transformed into \u201cguilt by conversation,\u201d Manchin proclaimed, his frequent explanation for difficulty in working across the aisle.\r\nA man who said he\u2019s a member of the AARP told the senator he\u2019s fed up with the bickering in Washington.\r\nManchin agreed, noting the general public\u2019s dislike extends to people of either party in political office. Referring to an ambiguous \u201cthem,\u201d a Manchin metaphor drew laughter from the crowd.\r\n\u201cI told them this, I said, \u2018Back in West Virginia, you jump in the pig pen, by God, you get a little smell on ya!\u2019\u201d The senator\u2019s spent a fair amount of time in the slop this year, and the nation\u2019s noticed.\r\nThe New York Times recently described Manchin as a \u201ccentrist Democrat\u201d who \u201chas shown an impulsive, almost reflexive willingness to reject the position of his leaders and try to entice fellow senators to a middle ground.\u201d\r\nThe article outlined some of Manchin\u2019s skirmishes with Democrats: he wants a one-year delay of the penalty associated with not having health insurance under President Barack Obama\u2019s signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act. He opposed Obama\u2019s call for military action in Syria, and supported a GOP-backed student loan bill.\r\nIt pointed to his two-year \u201cpestering\u201d as part of the reason the Federal Drug Administration recently moved toward reclassifying hydrocodone \u2014 the active ingredient in power painkillers like Lortab and Vicodin \u2014 as a Schedule II drug.\r\nManchin championed the move Thursday, a change that increases regulations on the medication, including cutting the amount of medication a patient can receive at one time.\r\n(After the meeting, he said he hasn\u2019t spoken about the issue with his daughter Heather Bresch, CEO of pharmaceutical giant Mylan Inc. \u201cWe don\u2019t talk about business at all. I can\u2019t, with the public company she has. We don\u2019t put ourselves in that position,\u201d Manchin said after the lunch.)\r\nLike many other West Virginia politicians, Manchin is quick to criticize any regulation from the president or the Environmental Protection Agency he deems detrimental to coal.\r\nThis coal policy clash appears frequently in the national media: recently, the Wall Street Journal, Politico and others chronicled his eventually successful campaign to keep Ron Binz from becoming the leader of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.\r\nIn October, Roll Call quoted Manchin saying, \u201cI want to kick myself\u201d for leaving his job as governor to run for Senate. Three years in to the federal position, he said he\u2019s still trying to bring people together.\r\nThe Fox News crew and an Associated Press reporter followed Manchin Thursday. Abby Huntsman, host of a daily show broadcast nationally on MSNBC, reportedly sampled the fare at a local Tudor\u2019s Biscuit World when she and a crew joined Manchin Friday in West Virginia.\r\nThe national media watches Manchin. They want to know what he\u2019s going to do next, legislatively or politically.\r\n\u201cThey keep thinking I\u2019m going to do this or that. I don\u2019t know, I\u2019ve never plotted out what I\u2019m going to do,\u201d Manchin said. \u201cI always want to put myself in a position to do the best I could to help people.\u201d\r\nLaughing, he added, \u201cI don\u2019t have the ambition to hit the campaign trail.\u201d\r\nAsked directly if he\u2019d thought about running for governor again or seeking higher office, Manchin pointed to the around the- clock nature of the media.\r\nHe talked about getting through the 2014 election cycle.\r\nHe didn\u2019t answer the question.\r\n\u201cWhatever happens will happen,\u201d he said.  \u2003\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t  \n\t\t\t\t    By:\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t    Dave Boucher\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t  \n\t\t\t\tSource:\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tGuns, other issues keep senator in national spotlight", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.manchin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=23307b03-9446-467a-9428-dd2459c04848"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.2884540483355522, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}