(Headline USA) Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., refused to endorse President Joe Biden this week, arguing the president’s policies were too far to the left for him to support.
Manchin made the comment during an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, who asked whether he planned to weigh in on the race after he announced this month that he would not be launching his own bid for the presidency.
“I’m not endorsing anybody right now. We’re going to see what all happens,” Manchin said.
“We still got plenty of time here,” he continued. “I’m going to 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.”
When pressed on what it would mean for Manchin not to support the Democratic Party’s candidate, he argued that his priority was making sure “the center of this country is going to be represented.”
Right now, he argued, the country is experiencing two “extremes” with Biden and former President Donald Trump.
“I’ve had this conversation with [Biden] and with his people that he’s gone too far to the left,” Manchin said.
“They’ve pushed him, and pulled him, and whatever, but that’s not where America is—that’s not where our country is,” he added. “… I still believe there’s enough good Republicans and Democrats that want this centrist type of approach to governing.”
Manchin revealed last week that he would not launch a third-party bid for the White House, shooting down months of speculation that he would challenge Biden. However, he said on Monday that it’s still likely other candidates will join the race.
“You just might have still a third-party run from No Labels,” he said, referring to the nonpartisan organization that was reportedly trying to recruit him to run. “And we’ll just see what opportunities and what type of options you have.”
A day prior to announcing his own decision not to run, Manchin jokingly had suggested that he might ask failed 2012 Republican candidate Mitt Romney to be his running mate.
However, Romney retorted, “Well, that’s really presumptuous. I would be the president. He would be my running mate.”
The Utah senator later clarified that he had no plans to launch another presidential run, nor a vice presidential one.
Manchin’s announcement specifically said he would not be seeking a third-party run and would not be involved in a presidential run.
It remains to be seen whether, semantically speaking, that might leave open a window for him to join the ticket as someone else’s running mate.
