Joe Manchin, daughter Heather back effort to elect independents

Joe Manchin and his daughter Heather appeared on Face the Nation on Aug. 2 to promote a new effort aimed at electing independent candidates to public office. The broadcast also featured Hugging Face CEO Clement Delangue, putting AI leadership and Manchin’s political voice on the same national Sunday platform.

CBS News’ transcript identified Joe Manchin as an independent former U.S. senator from West Virginia and Heather Manchin as the CEO of Americans Together. A USC Schaeffer biography also lists Heather Manchin as the founder and CEO of Americans Together, and says she is the former CEO of Mylan, where she became the first woman to lead a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company.

The appearance fit a pattern for Joe Manchin, who has been a recurring Face the Nation guest. CBS News has transcripts of his interviews from Dec. 18, 2022, and Jan. 14, 2024, reflecting the long arc of his role as one of Washington’s most prominent centrist figures.

That reputation for dealmaking was visible years earlier. In January 2019, during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, Manchin said an “outside observer” was needed to facilitate negotiations between the administration and Congress on immigration. The comment captured the posture that has made Manchin a frequent national voice in fights over compromise, especially when party lines harden.

Face the Nation has given that kind of conversation a steady national venue for decades. CBS says the program airs Sundays at 10:30 AM ET on CBS and 12:30 PM ET on the CBS News app. It debuted on CBS on Nov. 7, 1954, and remains one of the network’s most durable forums for political figures trying to shape the terms of the next federal fight.