West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin on Sunday joined growing calls for President Joe Biden to bow out of the 2024 presidential race.
During an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Manchin said, with a “heavy heart,” that it’s time for Biden to “pass the torch” to the next generation of leaders. Manchin claimed a lack of confidence in Biden’s ability to win in November is having an effect on state-level elections and causing donor money to dry up behind the scenes.
“With all that being said, my prayers are with the health and wellbeing of my friend, the president,” said Manchin, who left the Democratic party to become an independent this year. Off the ticket, Biden has an opportunity to unite the country, said Manchin, “The way he has always done.”
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When Tapper asked Manchin about how the party should go about deciding a new presidential nominee, Manchin said it should be an “open process” to give other political players a time to shine.
“I think that we have a lot of talent on the bench,” said Manchin. “And I’m partial to governors because a governor can’t afford to be partisan.”
Specifically, Manchin said he had “two tremendous governors next door” to him in Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
“They haven’t divided their state. They haven’t made you pick a side and demonized the other side,” said Manchin. “They’ve brought people together. This is what an open process would do, I think.”
“It would bring more people out in a process that could bring Democrats like me back,” he said. Manchin nevertheless acknowledged he didn’t know what that open process would look like.
“People keep talking about race and gender—it’s not about race and gender, it’s about positions, it’s about basically who we are,” Manchin added. “I left the Democrat Party because it’s not the Democratic Party that I grew up in, that I always knew.”
