Sen. Joe Manchin—the West Virginia lawmaker reviled by progressives for his climate-killing policies and many Democrats over his repeated sabotage of his own party’s agenda—said Sunday he has still not decided about whether he might make a third-party run for president in 2024.
Asked by “Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream if he’s decided on a possible run with the billionaire-backed “No Labels” or otherwise, Manchin applauded the group “pushing very hard to the centrist middle” and “making commonsense decisions,” but dodged a direct answer to the question.
“If Plan A shows that we’re going to the far reaches of both sides, the far left and the far right, and the people don’t want to go to the far left and the far right, they want to be governed from the middle,” Manchin said. “I think there is… you better have that Plan B available and ready to go.”
When pressed by Bream on his consideration of a presidential run, Manchin replied, “Not ruling anything in, not ruling anything out.”
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
— The Recount (@therecount) June 4, 2023
Last month, as Common Dreamsreported, journalists with More Perfect Union dove into the secretive funding of No Labels—which offers itself as a harmless, more middle-of-the-road option to the two major political parties in the U.S.—and found that much of the money behind the group comes from “a whole of billionaires with a history of opposing democracy.”
A group calling themselves "No Labels" has suddenly emerged as a huge financial backer of Kyrsten Sinema.
They're also floating the idea of running Joe Manchin for President.
We dug into them, and found a whole lot of billionaires with a history of opposing democracy. pic.twitter.com/InSWKhGDE7
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) May 22, 2023
In a 2018 column, financial industry watchdogs Porter McConnell and Rion Dennis identified No Labels as part of a cabal of so-called “centrists” who are really just “wolves of Wall Street in sheep’s clothing,” hiding behind their harmless-sounding name to mask very insidious intent.
“For years, the group No Labels and its close partner, the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, have quietly promoted policies that are wrapped in the mantle of bipartisanship and pitched as “non-ideological,” while being in the pay of corporate interests,” McConnell and Dennis explained. “They produce reports, sponsor events, and weigh in on policy on behalf of unnamed corporate donors.”
Critics of a No Labels’ candidate in 2024 say it’s strikingly obvious that the true motive for such a move would be to slice off enough gullible voters to create a path for Donald Trump’s reelection.
Manchin is up for reelection this year to defend his U.S. Senate seat, but according to a poll released last week he is currently trailing the top Republican challenger, Gov. Jim Justice, by 22 points in a hypothetical general election contest.
Manchin is up for election in 2024 and Governor Jim Justice, who is very popular in the state, is considered to be a shoe-in for the Senate seat. A run for the presidency seems very unlikely, because If he doesn’t have traction in his home state of West Virginia, he’s unlikely to find it nationally.
No Labels, casting about for a semi viable election spoiler.
He doesn’t have the popularity. He does have name recognition, which is the big problem.
Oh, he has some name recognition. Just not the kind he wants or needs, especially if his delusions of grandeur include the WH. Anyone who pays even some attention to politics, even if it’s just headline news on big legislation that hears his name will immediately think Traitor if a Democrat, and if not that then “Untrustworthy” if Republican or Independent. Those latter two will look over how craven and corrupt he is, how willing he’s been to betray his own Party and simply conclude he’s unreliable. That he will sell out to whomever will pay him or his family members the most. Trump got away with that and may still have sixty or seventy million voters who still are willing to let him get away with it but for anyone not named Donald J. Trump that sh*t won’t fly. And might not for Trump anymore either!
Nowhere else in the world’s democracies would this person or anyone like him be described as ‘centrist’. The Overton Window in the USA has been dragged so far to the right by all that corrupt billionaire’s money that they can’t see the center any more.
The true center, half way between the extremes of left and right, worldwide, is around the middle left of the Democratic Party.
They espouse the policies the vast majority of the population support on all major and most minor issues. You name the policy, and the majority of Americans are no different to the majority in other ‘Western’ democracies. Abortion, healthcare, gun control, etc.
It’s about time the country’s political governance actually reflected the wills of actual voters.
Let Manchin and Sinema run third-party.
I don’t see them pulling votes away from Democrats.
Will probably ding the Repugs harder.