Manchin Won’t Say If He’ll Run for President or If He’d Run as a Democrat

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) refused to answer Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” multiple questions on if he is planning a presidential run in 2024.

Anchor Chuck Todd said, “Senator, you sound like a presidential candidate, and I don’t just say that here. In this morning’s Washington Post, you openly admit you’re thinking about it. You told the Post today, ‘if enough Americans believe there is an option and the option is a threat to the extreme left or the extreme right, it would be the greatest contribution to democracy, I believe.’ You were asked if you would participate in a No-Labels ticket, and you didn’t rule it in or out.”

He asked, “How serious are you about this?”

Manchin said, “What you ask what I am going to do and what my political ambitions will be is to be in the United States and that’s what I’ve seen happen over the period of time and I’m going to do whatever I can to have a voice in that middle.”

Todd asked, “Bottom line, we are going to find out if you’ll run for president in January in 2024?”

Manchin said, “My filing date is January 15, 2024 and I’ll make my decision maybe a little bit before that, but not until the end of the year, I can assure you.”

Todd said, “Do you know if you’ll be running as a Democrat or something else?”

Manchin said, “You know, the party identification is not going to change me, Democrat, Republican. Having a D and an R should not change you as a person. I’m going to still fight for the things I do. Can’t I be a moderate, centrist with whatever identification or no identification?”

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