BREAKING: Sen. Manchin has a plan to leave the Democrat party: report

Update: Manchin was later asked about these rumors, and claimed they were unverified.

Senator Joe Manchin is reportedly looking to change parties, reports Mother Jones on Wednesday. Manchin could leave the Democrat party if they push through Biden's massive, Build Back Better spending plan, without implementing his requested cuts.

A pivotal figure in the recent debates with senate progressives on one side and Republicans on the other, moderate Joe Manchin of West Virginia, along with Arizona's Kyresten Sinema, have been thorns in the side of progressive Democrats who have tried to push through President Biden's agenda. Manchin has said that he wants the $3.5 trillion bill cut down to $1.75 trillion.

Manchin's plan would be to first sent a letter to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, requesting to be removed from party leadership in the Senate. If that did not make an impact on the negotiations for the Build Back Better plan, Manchin would enact step two of his plan, changing his voter registration from Democrat to independent.

In Manchin leaves the Democrats, that party loses its advantage in the Senate, and the bill that Manchin opposes would not be able to pass in its current state, since no Republican will sign on to it either.

Manchin has been meeting with Biden at the White House for much of this week, to the point where some people joked that he had his own White House parking space.

However this negotiation goes, it's likely that Manchin's days with the Democrats are numbered, as he's informed colleagues that he's "so out of sync" with the party that he will likely part ways with them no matter what by the midterm elections in November 2022.