Dem senator: US coal workers 'feel like returning Vietnam vets'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A Democratic senator says American coal workers "feel like returning Vietnam veterans" due to Washington's anti-coal stance.
In an exclusive "Face-to-Face" interview with the Washington Examiner's Lisa Boothe, Sen. Joe Manchin talks about growing up in the small coal-mining town of Farmington, W.Va., and the sense of betrayal many of those families feel today.
"My state has done the heavy lifting," Manchin said. "We produced the coal-steel guns and ships and factories and the greatest industrial might: The [American] middle class. Now we feel like the returning Vietnam veterans."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We've done everything our country's ever asked of us," said Manchin, adding that many workers in the coal industry "think it's a patriotic duty."