Manchin DODGES question on whether he’ll back Biden in 2024
Manchin DODGES question on whether he’ll back Biden in 2024: Democrat says ‘we’ll just have to wait and see’ when asked if he will support president in Chris Cuomo interview
- Moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin played coy when asked if he would support President Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election
- ‘You know, we’ll just have to wait and see, I’m not predicting anything,’ Manchin told fired CNN anchor Chris Cuomo in a podcast interview
- Manchin said it would be the voters’ decision, and also pointed out how a ‘national Democratic figure’ likely wouldn’t win his red state, West Virginia
Moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin played coy when asked if he would support President Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election.
‘You know, we’ll just have to wait and see, I’m not predicting anything,’ Manchin told fired CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, who now hosts a podcast entitled, the Chris Cuomo project.
Manchin first said the voters would have to decide before landing on that answer.
‘I believe that basically the people will make a decision state by state and the people in my state will not support a national Democratic figure right now that I can see,’ said Manchin, whose West Virginia hasn’t voted for a Democrat since President Bill Clinton‘s 1996 re-election.
Moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin played coy when asked if he would support President Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election
Fired CNN anchor Chris Cuomo interviewed Sen. Joe Manchin for a new episdoe of his podcast, the Chris Cuomo Project
President Joe Biden praised Sen. Joe Manchin – and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer – for putting together a deal for a Senate reconciliation bill
Cuomo interjected saying, ‘I asked you, what do you say to them?’ about Manchin’s support.
‘What would I say to them is pick the person – I know Joe Biden to be a good person, OK. Now from the leadership, it’s gonna depend. I think that the, the policy, or lack of an energy policy, is very, very detrimental to our country,’ Manchin said.
‘I’m disagreing on that with him,’ he said of Biden. ‘I’m fighting on that.’
Manchin said on inflation, ‘There’s blame for everybody.’
‘But basically blame that we didn’t see it coming and didn’t intervene quicker or the feds – you can talk about all that,’ he continued.
‘So I’m not gonna tell you who – who’s gonna be running,’ the West Virginia Democrat added. ‘I don’t know if Joe Biden runs again and he’s the Democrat nominee, depending on who the Republican nominee is.’
Manchin’s non-endorsement comes the same day he was applauded by Biden publicly.
Manchin has been front-and-center since Wednesday when he and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced they had come to a deal on a Senate reconciliation bill.
That bill, if passed, salvages a chunk of Biden’s Build Back Better plan, which Manchin originally killed in December.
In recent weeks, it looked like Manchin was going to be an impediment for Biden’s climate agenda – however the compromise plan includes green energy provisions after all.
‘Yesterday, I spoke with both Senator Schumer and Manchin and offered my support for a historic agreement to fight inflation and lower costs for American families,’ Biden said Thursday in the State Dining Room, touting the compromise.
Manchin, who like Biden has been fighting COVID-19, will need to be released from isolation before a vote occurs.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin also has COVID currently.
‘My message to Congress is this: This is the bill you can pass to lower inflation, cut the deficit, reduce healthcare costs, tackle the climate change and promote energy security – all the time while reducing the burdens facing working class and middle class families,’ Biden said.