Sen. Mitt Romney says he wants Democrat Joe Manchin to run for president but claims him endorsing any 2024 candidate is a ‘kiss of death’

Republican Sen. Mitt Romeny doesn't want to endorse anyone for president because he thinks putting his name behind any candidate will be a “kiss of death” as he prepares to leave Congress at the end of his term in 2025 .

The Utah senator would like his colleague Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) to be on the Democratic ticket instead of President Joe Biden.

Although Romeny would not reveal who he plans to vote for on Sunday, he said he absolutely will not vote for former President Donald Trump.

He also had praise for former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley — but said his vote in Utah doesn't matter because it's deeply Trump country.

“I hope someone other than President Biden is the Democratic party's nominee. We'll see who that might be,” Romney told NBC News Meet the Press host Kristen Welker on Sunday morning.

Senator Mitt Romeny says he won't support any 2024 candidate because that would be 'the kiss of death' for their campaign

When asked if he would vote for Biden if it were between him and Trump in 2024, Romney said, “The Joe I would vote for is Joe Manchin.”

“I'm not going to tell you right now who I'm going to vote for,” he added. “Utah will be for Donald Trump, so it's kind of irrelevant.”

Manchin, a moderate Democrat, announced he will not run for re-election to his long-held Senate seat in West Virginia. It further fueled speculation that he plans to make a third-party bid in 2024.

But Romney, an anti-Trump Republican who is also leaving Congress at the end of his term, said he doesn't think Manchin will run in this election.

“No, I don't, but I wish he would,” the senator told Welker when asked if Manchin would run. “I wish he was the Democratic nominee.”

“By the way, there are a few Democrats who I think would be a better candidate than President Biden.”

Romney said he thinks Amb. Haley has the best chance of becoming the Republican nominee next to Trump, but admits this is still a gamble.

Trump is at least 40 points ahead in national polls and is still the leading frontrunner in national polls.

Romney says he wishes Senator Joe Manchin would be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2024

Christie, Romney claims, is the reason Trump has so far refused to appear in any of the four Republican presidential primaries.

'If I support someone, it would be a kiss of death. I'm not going to do that,” Romney said on Sunday.

'Should I support the person I like the least?' he joked. 'I'm obviously not going to support President Trump. I made that very clear.'

“Look, Chris Christie has done a great job so far. I think his entry into the race has kept Donald Trump from coming to the debates,” the Utah senator explained. “Because I think Donald Trump realized that if he went to the debate with Chris Christie, Chris Christie would expose him for who he was, and Trump would be seriously hurt.”

Romeny all but ruled out voting for Trump or Biden, claiming it's a choice between “someone too old and someone too crazy.”