WASHINGTON — Well, that was quite the ending.
Self-described democratic socialist congressional hopeful William Lawrence attempted to end his spirited debate on a positive note about bipartisanship Tuesday, but was quickly reminded of his past death wish for Joe Manchin.
“I’m actually more optimistic about bipartisanship than I’ve been in a while, since entering this race,” Lawrence said in response to one of the final questions of the debate to represent Michigan’s 7th Congressional District in Lansing. “I’ve met people all over this district who are united, regardless of their party affiliation, in their opposition to endless wars.”
But incumbent Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Mich.) immediately raised questions about Lawrence’s sincerity and drew attention to his past broadsides against Manchin.
“Senator Joe Manchin, former United States senator, when he was not sufficiently active on the radical climate change agenda that my opponent supported, he [Lawrence] didn’t go to him in this welcoming, open-door spirit,” Barrett recounted.
“He said, ‘F— you hurry up and die so we can get started,” the incumbent rep added. “Maybe that’s another example of one of his hypothetical tweets, but it sounds pretty direct to me.”
“I have never in my life called for the death of a political opponent.”
After that, the moderators gave the two candidates time to make their final pitch to voters on why they should be the district’s next congressman, and Lawrence didn’t address the Manchin death wish post he made.
Lawrence, who was a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, an anti-climate change grassroots effort, had written a song for Manchin on social media back in 2021.
At the time, Manchin was a linchpin vote of the Democrats’ threadbare Senate majority. Lawrence and other lefty activists were incensed that he was opposing major climate change-related efforts.
Specifically, Manchin had been torpedoing multi-trillion-dollar iterations of former President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, which was later watered down and rebranded as the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that became law.
“So long, thanks for the memories[.] Our generation says f— you for everything[.] From these ashes we will rebuild Hurry up and die so that we can get started,” Lawrence posted on Twitter, as it was then called.
The future Michigan congressional hopeful claimed it was an excerpt from a song he had written for Manchin.
That was one of many incendiary past social media posts from Lawrence that were unearthed by CNN last month. The Post contacted both Lawrence’s campaign and Manchin’s representatives for comment.
Barrett and Lawrence are competing for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District seat, which is one of the most competitive House races in the country. The Cook Political Report rates it a toss-up.
Up until this summer, Lawrence was a member of the DSA. He was seen trying to court far-left streamer Hasan Piker and has a history of floating lefty ideas such as mass land redistribution.
During their debate, Lawrence tried to distance himself from his far-left past and described Piker’s 2019 comments that “America deserved 9/11” as “despicable.”
For his part, Barrett drew distance from President Trump on the war in Iran and tariffs. At one point, he indicated that he condemns Trump’s bellicose rhetoric towards Iran.
