FIRST ON FOX: Democrat West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin’s apparent sole current campaign staffer called for former President Trump to “hang” on social media, Fox News Digital has learned.
Charlie Collins, who has worked on Manchin’s campaign since 2018, has made several posts on his Facebook account attacking Trump, the GOP and a slew of Republican lawmakers.
In response to this Fox News Digital report, a Manchin spokesman said that Collins “is no longer employed by the campaign. Senator Manchin has always believed that a core pillar of our democracy is civil and respectful disagreement and he has zero tolerance for violence or threats of violence.”
In one post from Jan. 17, 2020, Collins shared a political cartoon of Uncle Sam leading Trump to a noose with Manchin’s staffer writing, “Hang the convict.”
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Another post from April 25 of that year included a meme of Trump picking his nose and claiming the former president was “trying to kill us all” by suggesting treatments for COVID-19 amid the onset of the pandemic.
“Hey Trumpsters, have you finally figured out this idiot is trying to kill all of us?” Collins wrote. “Between his idiotic statement about the disinfectant and his press conferences promoting hydroxychloroquine, that doesn’t work, how much more evidence do Americans need to see what a complete moron this man is.”
A post by Collins from Sept. 1, 2021 shared a picture from the Occupy Democrats Facebook page depicting Trump along with GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, and other Republican lawmakers as members of the Taliban.
“These are two corrupt people in public office,” Collins wrote on Facebook October 12, 2020, with pictures of Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Lindsay Graham, R-S.C. “McConnell on Fox laughing that he blocked everything from Obhamas administration.”
“I want any Republican to explain to me why it’s OK to confirm this new judge in an election year but they were so against it in previous years,” he continued. “I hope these two smug hypocritical bastards gets defeated. I swear Republicans are authoritarians.”
Collins also shared an Occupy Democrats post on July 7, 2021 defending former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s handling of the Benghazi attack.
Additionally, Manchin’s staffer shared another Occupy Democrats post on Feb. 1 of the same year claiming Republicans “conspired with an enemy to destroy our democracy.”
“It’s about time,” Collins wrote about Trump on June 25, 2021. “Lock this crook up.”
“You really call this a religious president? Wake up people!!” Collins posted about Trump on June 2, 2020. “If you believe this idiot I wouldn’t want to attend any services with you.’
“Hello, America, I’m not your president but your dictator,” he continued.
According to the senator’s April 2023 quarterly Federal Elections Commission filings, Collins is the only person marked paid a “salary” — making him appear as the campaign’s sole paid employee at the moment. Manchin has not yet announced whether he intends to run for re-election to the Senate in 2024.
A spokesperson for Manchin’s campaign told Fox News Digital, “This individual is no longer employed by the camapign.”
“Senator Manchin has always believed that a core pillar of our democracy is civil and respectful disagreement and he has zero tolerance for violence or threats of violence,” the spokesperson said.
Manchin has been in the headlines recently after emails revealed that his wife appeared to break an ethics pledge.
Gayle Manchin, Manchin’s wife and federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission, appears to have violated an ethics pledge by advising an organization with ties to her husband’s campaign despite vowing to recuse herself from matters where she had a “financial interest,” according to emails obtained by Fox News Digital.
According to the emails, Gayle Manchin quietly advised Coalfield Development, a nonprofit organization, in October 2021 on a $62.8 million grant from the American Rescue Plan that ultimately led to an organization headed by her husband’s campaign committee and leadership PAC’s treasurer receiving millions of dollars from the grant.
The ethics pledge Gayle Manchin signed in April 2021 stated she would recuse herself from such advisement boards to “avoid any actual or apparent conflicts of interest.”