Democrat Joe Manchin REFUSES to Support Biden: Senator who announced he will not run for office in 2024 reveals why he won’t support Joe and why Trump was one of the reasons he decided to leave Congress

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin declined to endorse Joe Biden for president, saying he was not supporting “anyone right now.”

His hesitation to provide support is not a good sign for Biden, who faces concerns from members of his own party about his age — at 81, he is the oldest American ever elected president — and his dismal approval rating.

Manchin, who is not seeking re-election, also blamed Donald Trump for his decision to leave politics. He said the former president’s opposition to a border security package was the final straw for him.

The longtime senator from West Virginia was courted for president by a third party led by No Labels, a centrist group. Manchin refused to let Biden run his own White House, but also does not want to give Biden his blessing.

“I’m not supporting anyone right now. We’ll see what happens,” he told CNN’s Kaitlin Collins on Monday night. “We still have plenty of time here.”

“I’m going to do everything I can to bring them back to the center and show them where the strength of this country lies, where the voting bloc of the country lies,” he added.

When pressed by Collins on what he would do if the presidential ticket is Biden versus Trump again, Manchin said, “We’ll just have to see what happens.”

‘It takes a long time for that to happen. At this point you may still have other people coming in, there may still be independents, you may still have a third party run by No Labels, and we’ll just see what opportunities and what kind of options you have,” he said .

Manchin has said he has long warned the White House that Biden has moved too far to the left and that could cost the president the independent voters he needs to win a second term in the White House.

No Labels has been exploring a possible centrist presidential ticket — a move it has not ruled out even though Manchin declined to run. Additionally, third-party candidates such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and progressive activist Cornel West already in the presidential race.

The longtime senator also disrupted the political atmosphere on Capitol Hill, noting that the collapse of a bipartisan bill in the Senate that would provide aid to Ukraine, along with tougher measures to protect the border, was “the biggest part” of his decision to retire.

“I came to the final conclusion: I always believed that we could make laws during a crisis, that we would come together for a crisis. Well, guess what, we have a crisis. The border is a crisis.’

Manchin, who has close ties to many Republican senators, noted: “I saw my friends running away when they were determined to pass through border control, and three days before they were already on board. And as Donald Trump came at them as hard as he came, they cowered and walked away. I said, ‘We don’t fix anything in Washington.’

He announced in November that he would no longer compete.

Senator Joe Manchin has criticized President Joe Biden (above) for moving too far to the left

Senator Joe Manchin said Donald Trump’s opposition to the border security law is the main reason he decided to retire from politics

Manchin is a political institution in West Virginia and has held his seat in the Senate since 2010. He has repeatedly overcome the odds to win the seat in the deep-red state, which led Trump by nearly 40 points in 2020.

Republicans are now favored to win this year’s Senate race in West Virginia as Manchin retires. And that means that Democrats face an uphill climb to maintain their narrow majority in the Senate.

The 76-year-old Manchin has long been at odds with members of his Democratic Party. He refused to support Biden’s Build Back Better program, for which he was criticized. However, he did help make Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act law.

There was fear among Biden supporters that Manchin would allow a third-party White House to rule and draw moderate Democrats and some independent voters away from the president.

Instead, Manchin announced Friday that he would focus on his new group, Americans Together, which promotes moderate politics.

“I just don’t think this is the right time,” Manchin said last week. “Democracy is currently at stake.”