Joe Manchin Campaigns With Susan Collins in Maine
Left 33%
Center 33%
Right 33%
1 left · 1 center · 1 right
What happened
On Wednesday in Lewiston, Maine, former Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia — a Democrat-turned-independent who retired in 2024 — campaigned with Republican Sen. Susan Collins, sharing breakfast with voters as she seeks a sixth Senate term. Collins is the only Republican senator up for reelection in a state President Trump lost; the race is rated a toss-up, and in 2020 she won by more than 8 points even as Trump lost Maine by 9. After the breakfast, Manchin told reporters she is "not a Trump senator" but "an American senator that represents her state of Maine," and said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) was "crazy" to work against her, as Manchin said he had also told Schumer in 2020. The same day, while touring a New Balance factory, Collins described Russian President Vladimir Putin as "a warmonger, a thug" and said she does not support Trump's decision to waive new sanctions on Russia; protesters outside the breakfast shouted for her to retire and displayed cutouts of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, whose confirmation she voted for. Maine AFL-CIO President Cynthia Phinney called Collins campaigning with Manchin "mystifying and insulting," citing Manchin's work as an adviser for private equity firm Apollo Global Management, which Phinney claimed is responsible for "killing hundreds of Maine jobs."
Sourcing check · Fully on the record · 3 articles
3 of 3 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.
What these terms mean and how they're counted
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- On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: Joe Manchin, Cynthia Phinney, Susan Collins and Troy Jackson
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- How it developed
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This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
Left-leaning coverage treats Manchin’s Maine visit as a rebuke of Democrats for targeting Collins, and right-leaning coverage treats it as a union slap at the pairing over private equity. Neither The Hill nor the Examiner tells readers she used the stop to break with Trump on Russia. That is the case she made to voters that morning, including calling Putin a "warmonger." She also opposed a diesel deal with Moscow, a stretch of the visit that both partisan write-ups skip.
The leads do not overlap. Left-leaning coverage opens on Manchin versus Schumer. Right-leaning coverage opens on Maine’s AFL-CIO president calling the campaign stop "mystifying and insulting," with no Schumer at all.
Did Collins answer, on the trail, the charge that her guest’s firm had killed Maine jobs?
Bottom line
A Hill reader gets Manchin calling Schumer "crazy"; an Examiner reader gets a union insult over private equity, and neither gets Collins breaking with Trump on Russia that day.
The receipts — 3 facts one side's coverage lacks
- Collins described Putin as a warmonger and a thug, not a humanitarian
- Manchin said Schumer was crazy in 2020 and is crazy now to work against Collins
- Phinney claimed Apollo Global Management is responsible for killing hundreds of Maine jobs
The Left View
Left-leaning coverage frames the appearance around Manchin's rebuke of Democratic strategy rather than around Collins's record. It highlights his charge that Schumer was "crazy" in 2020 "from working against her so hard" and is "crazy now to work against her," presenting the Maine race as a target Democrats are mistaken to contest.
The Right View
Right-leaning coverage frames the pairing as a snub to organized labor. It leads with Phinney's description of the appearance as "mystifying and insulting" and foregrounds her claim that Manchin's Apollo role is responsible for "killing hundreds of Maine jobs," treating the guest as a liability for Maine workers rather than a bipartisan credential.
Our Take (balanced)
The strongest argument in the Schumer-targeting frame is Manchin's 2020 warning plus Collins's 2020 result — she won by more than 8 points while Trump lost Maine by 9 — offered as evidence that Democrats are repeating a failed read of the state. The strongest labor argument is local and material: Phinney's "killing hundreds of Maine jobs" claim about Apollo, tied to Manchin's adviser role, is used to recast the event as an affront to Maine workers. The central unresolved tension is whether recruiting a former Democrat and rejecting Trump-aligned language on Putin is proof of a moderate independence Maine has rewarded before, or a politically tone-deaf alliance given Manchin's private-equity ties.
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