Manchin Touts His ‘Fiscally Responsible and Socially Compassionate’ Politics in Meeting with Iowa Business Leaders

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (D) touted his “fiscally responsible and socially compassionate” politics during a Wednesday meeting with Iowa business and community leaders.

Manchin’s remarks to the roughly 170 Greater Des Moines Partnership members sparked renewed suspicions about a potential third-party presidential run.

“I believe the government should be your partner. I’m not your provider,” Manchin told the Iowans. “When people say what’s your politics? I say I’m fiscally responsible and socially compassionate, which I think most Americans are.”

He also answered questions about his presidential ambitions.

“Honest to God, my main concern: How do we save this nation? How do we bring people together to protect the quality of life, the values that we’ve had that we were raised with? That’s all,” Manchin told Axios. “You have got to fight for the reasonable, responsible middle and no one is doing that. There’s no options.”

Earlier this month, Puck News reported that Manchin sounded like a candidate on a call with No Labels, a group hoping to build infrastructure to launch a bipartisan third-party presidential run.

Prominent Democrats fear that No Labels could ruin their chances of winning the presidency.

“No Labels is arguing that they won’t act as a spoiler, but our view is that the risk is enormously high,” Third Way co-founder Matt Bennett said. “And that’s the only impact they can have on the race because they can’t possibly win.”

“We would hope and urge that Manchin makes it clear that he’s not interested in this third party bid because it has absolutely no chance of success,” Bennett added. “The sooner he makes that clear, the better.”

Last month on Meet the Press, Manchin did not rule out the possibility of a third-party run with No Labels but said he “would never intend to be a spoiler of anything.”

“When you’re asking me what I’m going to do and what my political ambitions would be, it’s to make the country work together and be a United States and not the divided states,” Manchin told NBC.

Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jdixonhamilton@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter.