Over the weekend, moderate Democrat Senator Joe Manchin (WV) suggested he was considering a third-party presidential run in 2024 because he believes that extremism is becoming a serious problem for both Democrats and Republicans.
Manchin made his comments during an interview on Sunday with Fox News host Shannon Bream when asked about a new report from The New York Times about a self-described bipartisan group, “No Labels,” that wants a third-party presidential candidate in 2024. Manchin is at the top of the group’s list.
“No Labels has been moving and pushing very hard the centrist middle. Making commonsense decisions,” Manchin said. “People that basically expect us to do our job. And not put the political party ahead of the policy in our great country. That’s what we’ve seen happening. And there’s more noise and more extremism coming from the far left and the far right.”
“It’s always what I’ve believed. I believe that basically that’s where you make the decisions,” Manchin said of the political center. “You listen to the Left and the Right. You make sure that you leave nobody behind. And you listen to the different persuasions that they might have, concerns. But when it comes you’ve got to make common sense.”
Manchin was repeatedly questioned on the matter by Bream.
“Not ruling anything in, not ruling anything out,” Manchin said.
“Both the extreme Left and the extreme Right voted to default – they voted against it,” Manchin said. “It was the Democrats and Republicans in the middle. So that moderate middle, the centrists, well, we’re going to run this country. We can’t continue to let the extremes try to be the majority voice when it’s going to be the majority voting in the middle and the moderate centrists that will make things happen.”
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) hits extremism on the left and right but does not give a straight answer to Fox's Shannon Bream when she asks whether he'll run as a third-party candidate on a No Labels ticket. pic.twitter.com/JQrNSgRpvC
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