Joe Manchin says the Senate should consider removing Hawley and Cruz using the 14th Amendment.

Moderate Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin said the Senate should consider removing Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley using the 14th Amendment.

Asked whether Section 3 of the 14th Amendment should be triggered during an interview with PBS on Friday night, Manchin said: “They should look, absolutely. That should be a consideration. He understands that, Ted’s a very bright individual, and I get along fine with Ted. But what he did was totally outside of the realm of our responsibilities or our privileges.”

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Section 3 of the 14th Amendment states:

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Sens. Hawley and Cruz led the effort to challenge electoral results in the Senate. Democrats blame both senators for further inciting the mob of insurrectionists that stormed the Capitol by echoing Donald Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud in the election.

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Hawley and Cruz claimed they were just addressing concerns from their constituents about fraud in the election that were propagated by Donald Trump and his allies.

The West Virginia Democrat is not buying their story.

“I’m totally convinced it was done because of political reasons. This was all politically-motivated, this was calculated,” Manchin said. “I believe that all my colleagues truly made a decision that was politically best for them and expedient for them. It was not what they believed to be true or false.”