Joe Manchin Would Like a Word. (OK, Maybe Several Words.)

Seeming to fulfill the adage that familiarity breeds contempt, Joe Manchin III, the former senator from West Virginia, has a lot of not-so-fond things to say about the Democratic Party in which he served as a stubborn centrist for more than four decades and then re-registered as an independent in May 2024.

In a lengthy interview last week aboard his boat, Almost Heaven, docked on Washington’s Wharf, Mr. Manchin, 78, said of former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., “I just think he lost the will to fight” the progressives in his party.

He criticized Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader, as a partisan warrior bent on “retaliation against Republicans.”

He said that after Mr. Biden dropped out of the 2024 race following his disastrous debate performance against Donald J. Trump, he briefly considered running against Vice President Kamala Harris “as an independent Democrat” until it was evident the party was coalescing around her.

He acknowledged that he is considering running as a third-party candidate in 2028.

The occasion for Mr. Manchin’s disgruntled musings was his new book, “Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense,” which St. Martin’s Press is publishing on Tuesday.

Never one to shy from a microphone, the voluble Mr. Manchin over his 14 years in the Senate was often a pivotal figure in big-ticket legislative negotiations, from infrastructure to gun safety, when he butted heads with liberals. He also came under criticism for protecting his state’s coal interests.