Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) blamed Democratic congressional losses during the 2020 election on a lack of and ineffective talking points to the public.

“We didn’t have a good message, I’ll be very honest with you,” Manchin said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday, suggesting Republicans had successfully branded the party as far left. “We let them tag us basically before we could remind the people who we are.”

Historically Democratic voters who helped President Trump’s margin of victory in 2016 “went from being mad to being scared in 2020… they were scared of this socialism that was thrown out there by a radical part of the so-called left that was throwing all this out there that basically scared the bejeezus out of people,” Manchin said. “And that hung on and hung on strongly, and it’s not who we are.”

Why didn’t the Dems message breakthrough in #Election2020?

West Virginia’s @Sen_JoeManchin tells @margbrennan: “We didn’t have a very good message to be honest with you,”

Says messages of the so-called #RadicalLeft “scared the bejeezus” out of crucial rural voters in America pic.twitter.com/hG6Y2GNCHW

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) November 8, 2020

“I have fought against that, Joe Biden has fought against that,” he added. “We’re not for the New Green Deal, we’re not for the things [President Trump] has talked about, Medicare for All. We can’t even pay for Medicare for some.”

Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) has also blamed her slim margin of re-election on the party’s left flank.

Fox News exit polling indicated 72 percent of voters in the 2020 election were in favor of a government-run health care system.