Senator Manchin Will Back Trump If He Becomes President

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) presides over a hearing on battery technology in Washington, on Sept. 22, 2022. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) vowed to back whoever wins the 2024 presidential race, even if it is former President Donald Trump.

“Whenever our president is elected, duly elected by the people, which Joe Biden was done, which Donald Trump was done in 2016, I’m going to do everything I can to help my president be successful,” Mr. Manchin said in a Feb. 24 interview with Fox. He was responding to whether he had any “fears for the country” if the Republican candidate was to win a second term. Mr. Manchin clarified that he will support President Trump if he wins the 2024 race, but “I’m not going to vote for Donald Trump.”

When asked about President Trump being potentially vindictive after his victory, Mr. Manchin said he would work with the GOP candidate to ensure that such things do not happen.

“You'd hope that we could have reasons, sit down and make sure he doesn’t use the vengeful vindictive tone he’s been touting right now, and use a common decency that we all have and have to have in this type of civility, in a civil country that we have,” he said.

“So, let’s see what happens there. I will not support someone who’s told me what they’re going to do and how they’re going to govern. But if they’re in that position, I’m going to try to work with them to bring them back to common sensibility.”

Commenting about President Joe Biden, Mr. Machin said he hopes the Democrat “would come back to what he said he was in 2020, the person I’ve known forever and be more centrist, center-left maybe.”

Mr. Manchin’s statements come after he said during a recent interview with CNN that he wants to shift the politics of Americans more to the center than left or right.

“I’m trying to do everything I can to make sure that we have a pathway forward where the center of this country is going to be represented ... that’s the center-left and center-right. That’s where the decisions [are], that’s where people live their lives. That’s the type of government they want. They don’t want the extremes.”

Biden ‘Too Far Left’

In his interview with CNN, Mr. Manchin made it clear that he will not endorse President Biden in the 2024 White House race.

“I’m not endorsing anybody right now. We’re going to see what all happens,” he said. “I’ve had this conversation with him and with his people that he’s gone too far to the left. They’ve pushed him and pulled him, and whatever. But that’s not where America is. That’s not where our country is,” he explained.

“I’m hoping the Joe Biden that we saw in 2020 will be the Joe Biden we see in 2024 if that can be done. If not, it’s going to be a long road for everybody.”

President Biden is not the person to unite the country as he doesn’t have the knowledge or ability to do so, he said.

Speaking to NPR, Mr. Manchin suggested President Biden and his campaign should tone down their “extreme” leftist leanings.

“How did he win in 2020? Look at the rhetoric that was used back then. It’s not extreme. Everything that was said and everything he showed people was what he'd done through his experience being in the Senate and then being vice president,” he said.

“And [voters] said, ‘Yeah, this man is more moderate than most, he’s easy to work with. He looks at the facts and makes decisions.’ That’s what he had been known for. And now I think people believe that he has gone too far to the left.”

He criticized President Biden’s campaign team for “playing to the base” rather than the moderate, centrist, independent voters who he thinks will decide the 2024 race. “They’re not talking to them.”

According to a Feb. 20 poll by Morning Consult, President Trump has extended his lead over President Biden among likely registered voters.

In the poll, 45 percent of such people said they would vote for President Trump in the 2024 race, a four percentage point lead over President Biden’s 41 percent. Among independents, President Trump had an eight-point lead.

In November, Mr. Manchin announced that he had no intention to run for another term in the Senate, a seat that he has occupied for more than a decade since 2010.

“After months of deliberation and long conversation with my family, I believe in my heart of hearts that I have accomplished what I have set out to do for West Virginia ... I have made one of the toughest decisions of my life and decided that I will not be running for reelection to the United States Senate,” he said in a video announcement on X (formerly Twitter).

The statement came amid speculation that Mr. Manchin could try to run for the 2024 presidency as a third-party candidate. “I will not be seeking a third-party run ... I will not be involved in a presidential run,” the senator clarified.

“I will be involved in making sure that we secure a president that has the knowledge, and has the passion, and has the ability to bring this country together.”

Even though the 76-year-old explored a third-party run, he finally decided against it. “The system right now is not set up for [it]. [In] the long game, maybe we can make a third-party viable where it has a process and opportunity. Right now, it’s very challenging.”

“And I’m not going to be a deal breaker, if you will, spoiler, whatever you want to call it,” he said. “I just don’t think it’s the right time.”