Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., on Monday once again slipped the question of whether he might run for president as a third-party candidate in 2024.
Manchin and former Utah governor John Huntsman, a Republican, were keynote speakers during a Common Sense Town Hall meeting hosted in Goffstown, New Hampshire, by the No Labels movement as it seeks to identify candidates for a possible presidential run on a “unity ticket” made up of a member from both major political parties.
Although it has remained noncommittal, No Labels is testing the waters for an alternative to Joe Biden and Donald Trump in 2024. According to Politico, Manchin’s involvement has some Democratic Party members worried about the possibility of souring the presidential race for Biden only to benefit Trump.
The first question moderator Kevin Cirilli, a Scripps News correspondent, asked in the question-and-answer style presentation was, “Is this the presidential ticket?”
“I think people are putting the cart ahead of the horse,” Manchin said. “We’re here to make sure that the American people have an option.”
Manchin said he believes the only way to move the political parties away from their current extreme ideologies will be to provide a real threat. He went on to say that, if he enters the race, his intent won’t be merely to “spoil” the election.
“If the voters have another option, then they’re in trouble, both the parties are in trouble,” Manchin said. “I’ve never been in any race I’ve ever spoiled. I’ve been in races to win. And if I get in the race, I’m going to win.”
Manchin reiterated that he has not made a final decision about 2024. He also has the option of seeking reelection to his Senate seat, taking on the victor of the Republican primary between West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va.
While he remained vague about his next move, Manchin continued to voice support for the goals of the No Labels movement and expressed an ongoing dissatisfaction with the current state of American politics. Americans are divided, he said, because that’s what’s in the best interest of the two political parties.
“Their business model is, ‘It’s better to be divided than united,’ and we’re going to change that,” Manchin said.
That political division also is in the best interest of China and Russia, said Huntsman, who has served as U.S. ambassador to both of those countries.
“If you look at their internal documents to see what they would wish upon the people of the United States, the answer would be, ‘Division,'" Huntsman said. “What they want to see in this country, other than a failure financially and a failure educationally, is for us to be divided and constantly at each other.”
The No Labels movement is surveying Americans and finding that they are not satisfied with the status quo, Manchin said, showing that the political climate might be right for a third party to provide a real challenge to the current hyper-partisan system.
“I know all the tricks that are being played. I’ve been there 13 years,” Manchin said. “It is time to speak up and, basically, make sure that we’re held accountable and responsible.”
No Labels has said a final decision about any potential candidate won’t come until after Super Tuesday – March 5, 2024.
He sucks. God, he just sucks.
His only silver lining is that whoever were to replace him would be worse. That’s a very, very low bar, but it’s all I have to grab onto.
He went on to say that, if he enters the race, his intent won’t be merely to “spoil” the election.
Intent is irrelevant if it is going to predictably do the exact thing you “don’t intend.”
As a career politician, he knows exactly what a third party run would do, so I don’t buy his bullshit.
Not that the remnants of the mushy middle aren’t brain-dead enough to still believe in some half-measure between “the same things we’ve done for the last 40 years” and “that but more intensely” as a solution to people not getting along, but I’m not entirely sure he’d be able to get enough people behind him to spoil the election.
