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Shortly after Joe Biden announced he was abandoning his reelection bid and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a longtime Democrat who in May left the party to become an independent, is reportedly himself mulling a run for the White House.
Manchin, 76, on Sunday morning called for Biden, 81, to step aside in favor of a younger, more electable candidate.
“He will go down with a legacy unlike many people as one of the finest and truly a patriot, an American, so with that, I come with a heavy heart to think the time has come for him to pass the torch to a new generation,” Manchin said in an appearance on ABC’s This Week.
Several hours later, following weeks of intense pressure from prominent Democrats and deep-pocketed donors, Biden went public with his plan to drop out of the race.
According to unnamed sources cited by The Hill, Manchin is considering rejoining the Democratic Party to vie for the nomination. He has spoken favorably of the “open” nominating process planned for the upcoming Democratic National Convention, where a “transparent and orderly process” will officially anoint a candidate, party chair Jaime Harrison said.
Doubts about Biden’s chances of winning November’s election against twice-impeached former president and newly-minted felon Donald Trump, who was formally nominated at this past week’s Republican National Convention as the GOP candidate after surviving an assassination attempt last Sunday, began to gain traction following a dismal debate performance last month. Other Democrats pushed for a replacement, and major backers said they would withhold some $90 million in donations until Biden left the race.
The possibility of Manchin weighing a run as a Democrat was also reported by The Wall Street Journal, CNN and Axios, which all cited unidentified sources with knowledge of the situation.
CBS News cited a “close political aide” in its dispatch. Manchin, who served as governor of West Virginia from 2005 to 2010, has already announced plans to retire from the Senate when his term ends in January. Manchin told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday that he considered Biden “one of the greatest leaders that we’ve had.”
Appearing on CNN, Manchin said he had been holding his tongue about Biden ever since the campaign season’s first debate against Trump.
“I thought the first week was needed for the president to evaluate, to talk to his family, his staff, and make some decisions,” Manchin said, adding that he also wanted to wait and see what down-ballot Democrats were thinking.
“They’ve been speaking out pretty loud and clear, thinking [the Biden situation] has an effect on them,” he said.
Manchin was the fifth senator to say publicly that they wanted Biden to leave the race. However, Manchin said he does not believe Biden should leave office before his term is up.
“I want him to be the president in the last five months of this presidency of his term,” he told Tapper, “to do what he can do is unite our country, to calm down the rhetoric and be able to focus attention to peace in the world.”
