Joe Manchin says Bernie Sanders is not what 'the majority of Americans represent' after Sanders hinted at Manchin getting primaried

Sen. Joe Manchin fired back after Sen. Bernie Sanders suggested he could face a primary challenger.

Both senators are in Democratic leadership, but they have an increasingly fraught relationship.

Manchin has come under scrutiny for his position on the filibuster and Build Back Better.

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Sen. Joe Manchin snapped at Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday after the former presidential candidate mused that Manchin could face a primary challenge after he voted against Democrats' efforts to weaken the Senate filibuster.

"Well, Senator Sanders is not a Democrat," Manchin told Newsy's Nathaniel Reed while back in West Virginia, pointing out that Sanders was a self-described democratic socialist. Manchin said Sanders' ideology was "not what I think the majority of Americans represent."

Both Manchin and Sanders are members of the Senate Democratic leadership. But they have an increasingly icy relationship because of their divergent views on how to move forward on President Joe Biden's economic agenda and voting rights.

"They have forced us to have five months of discussions that have gone absolutely nowhere. I think it's up to the people in their own states," Sanders told reporters last week when asked whether he'd support a primary challenge to Manchin, HuffPost reported.

Manchin told Newsy he'd welcome a primary challenge. A successor to a dominant West Virginia family who previously served as governor, Manchin has easily dispatched previous primary challengers. He won his 2018 primary by nearly 40 percentage points.

"I've always had primary challenges," Manchin said. "I've been running since 1982."

Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats and ran twice for Democratic presidential nomination, supported an effort to make an exception to the Senate filibuster to pass voting-rights legislation. Manchin has said he supports the legislation itself, but he and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have remained staunchly opposed to any efforts to weaken the filibuster.

Manchin also dealt a significant setback to Biden's agenda in December when he declared that he couldn't support the president's climate and spending plan, known as "Build Back Better." Sanders has repeatedly pressed for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to hold a vote on the proposal in its current form even if it fails.