West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin warns against praising low coronavirus rate: 'We didn't test'

Joe Manchin.
(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

President Trump spent Tuesday portraying West Virginia as a coronavirus success story. Its senator says that's dangerously untrue.

Before Tuesday, West Virginia was the last state in the nation that hadn't reported any cases of COVID-19, leading Trump to praise Republican West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice for "doing a good job." But as Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) — a conservative Democrat who often votes with Trump — said in a Wednesday interview with CNN, he "hoped the president wouldn't go down that road and make it look like we were doing something special."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.