Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said this week that he would consider a run for the White House. The statement came less than a week after the former West Virginia governor announced that he would not seek another term in the U.S. Senate.
Manchin made the comment during an interview with MSNBC. He was asked by host Kristen Welker about whether he was “seriously contemplating a run for the White House?”
“Here’s is what I’m seriously contemplating. I’ve said this clearly, people say, are you going to run?” he said. “I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure and immobilize the common sense middle that could be a center left, center right. It could be a person involved in the Grand Old Party forever, but they’ve basically said my Democrat friends over here, the old Blue Dog Democrats, that the middle is gone.”
The conservative Democrat said that there were not “many centrists left.”
Manchin has been associated with the group No Labels, which is reportedly considering running a third-party candidate against President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Despite the likelihood that Manchin would inadvertently aid Trump should he run as an independent, he also criticized the former president. He told CNN that he believed that if Trump was elected in 2024, he believed that “we lose democracy as we know it.”
“I think we lose democracy as we know it,” Sen. Manchin warns if Donald Trump is reelected. But asked isn’t that the point the White House is making when they say he shouldn't run as a third-party candidate, Manchin says, “Let me just tell you, I’m not going to be a spoiler.” pic.twitter.com/9mx1addzkB
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) November 16, 2023
“Let me just tell you, I’m not going to be a spoiler,” he said.
In his MSNBC interview, Manchin also said that he was “scared to death” of Trump becoming president again.
Manchin made the announcement last week that he would not seek another term in the Senate.
During the statement, Manchin said that “working across the aisle” was the best approach, which had “landed me in hot water, but the fight to unite has been well worth it.”
The senator said that after “months of deliberation” he believed that he accomplished his goals for his home state. He called not running again “one of the toughest decisions of my life.”
