Manchin: ‘I’m not going to be a spoiler’
Despite his denial of any current intentions of joining the race for the White House in 2024, Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin is sure acting like a potential presidential candidate.
After appearing on Friday for a traditional pre-presidential pit stop at Saint Anselm College to deliver an address at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, the coalstate senator made the Sunday
talk show rounds to expound on the many difficulties facing the country, before explaining he would watch the pace of the primaries closely ahead of any presidential decision.
“I think that we’ll find out, you just have to find out what’s going on. If there’s a movement, if there’s a movement for third party, I think is what you’re asking about, can that movement make a difference? I’m not going to be a spoiler, never have been and never will be. But people want options, or they want change. So we got to see what comes, and by then I think things will hopefully sort itself out,” Manchin told CBS.
Manchin was in the Granite State last week to promote his new political organization, Americans Together, which he said is meant to attract both Democrats and Republicans who feel their parties have become too extreme.
First elected to represent the Mountain State in the U.S. Senate in 2010, the former governor’s formation of the political group and his affiliation with the No Labels party have sparked rumors he’s planning to run against Biden in 2024. According to Manchin, voters do not want to see the sequel to 2020’s contest in 2024.
“People want a change, they don’t want the business model in Washington,” to told Fox News Sunday.
The 76-year-old senator, who announced in November he would not seek a fourth term, has been routinely non-specific as to his plans for the future.
“I’m going to do everything I can to save my country. And I’ll do whatever it takes. And I’ll help whoever. And I’ll support whoever that I think can best help this country come back to this common sense, sensible middle, which is center left, center right, working together with a majority. You can’t govern from extremes,” he said.
Despite previously attending No Labels events in New Hampshire, Manchin said on Friday that he’s not looking to the group for support of a third party White House run. His new group, he said, is not affiliated with the No Labels party.
Whether or not he decides to get into the race, he said, will come down to what the Republican and Democratic parties do in the next few months. The block of primaries scheduled for March 5, also known as “Super Tuesday,” will inform his decision, Manchin said.