Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) reportedly stated in an interview this week that she would support Joe Manchin (D-WV) if the 2024 presidential race was a replay of the 2016 election.
In an interview with Margaret Hoover of PBS’s “Firing Line” that aired on Friday, Murkowski said that she would support Manchin for president if he runs as a third-party candidate.
“Your Democratic colleague, Joe Manchin, is being courted by an outside effort to run as an independent in the 2024 election. This has been called by the organization No Labels, an insurance policy. Do you see any scenario where a third-party candidacy isn’t a spoiler for Donald Trump and just returns him to the White House?” Hoover asked.
“Yeah, you know, there’s been no end of second-guessing and people moving the numbers around. I don’t know on that. Others are smarter than me with elections [and] can weigh in there and they certainly have. Think about it: If we go into a 2024 scenario where it’s basically a redo of 2020 between Trump and Biden, what does that say? That we have nobody better than these two?” Murkowski said in response.
“And so, an Independent or somebody who is offering something in the middle. People are hungry for that. I can tell you, I’m talking to people up north. They’re asking because they know that I’m very close with Joe Manchin and I brought him up to this state a couple of times and he endorsed me. I’ve endorsed him.” she continued.
A short while later, Hoover queried Murkowski about whether she would back Manchin in the event that he decided to run as a third-party candidate.
“I tell you, if it’s a matchup between Biden and Trump, I know exactly where I’d go. I would go with, I would go with Joe Manchin.” Murkowski added.
“I am one who doesn’t like to use my vote for the lesser of evils. I want to be proactive in who I think could do the job. I think Manchin could do the job. But will our system allow for that? That I don’t know.” she concluded.
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