Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) revealed why he is not seeking a third-party bid for the White House this year, listing the Senate’s failure to pass a border and foreign aid bill as the “biggest” contributor.
Manchin, who announced he was not running for president on Friday, said the lack of bipartisan cooperation on the border deal despite the country’s border crisis was a major factor and blamed former President Donald Trump for the sudden change on the border deal.
“I always believed that we could legislate through a crisis. We’d come together for a crisis. Well, guess what, we have a crisis. The border is a crisis,” Manchin told CNN on Monday. “I saw my friends walk away when they were determined to pass border security, and they were on board three days before that. And with Donald Trump coming as hard as he came at them, they cowered down and walked away. I said, ‘We’re not fixing anything in Washington.’”
Manchin praised Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) for his work on the border deal, claiming the senator was the “most decent, honorable person and conservative in the entire Senate.”
If passed, the legislation would have made changes to the asylum process, granted the president expulsion authority, and increased resources for Border Patrol agents and asylum officers, among others.
Although Manchin has ruled out a presidential bid for himself, he has not settled on a candidate to support instead.
Manchin, a frequent critic of President Joe Biden, said if it came down to Trump and Biden on the main party tickets in November, he would consider what other third-party or independent choices there are.
“I’m not endorsing anybody right now. We’re gonna see what all happens. We’ve still got plenty of time here. I’m gonna do everything I can to help move them back to the middle and show them where the strength of this country lies, where the voting bloc of the country lies,” Manchin said. “Right now, there might be other people getting in, there’re still independents, you might have still a third-party run from No Labels, and we’ll just see what opportunities and what type of options you have.”
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No Labels, which is considering launching a bipartisan presidential ticket, said it is still considering other candidates and would reach a decision on whether to launch the bid on Super Tuesday.
The party has gained ballot access in 16 states but still aims to appear in all 50.
