Murkowski: If 2024 Is Trump Versus Biden ‘I’d Go With Joe Manchin’
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) stated during a recent interview that she would choose to vote for her colleague, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), if he runs as an independent — as she would not want to choose either President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump.
Murkowski, who was previously censured by the Alaska Republican Party for voting to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial, made the remarks during an appearance on PBS’ “Firing Line” on Thursday. The RINO senator’s announcement of support for a Democrat president came after host Margaret Hoover brought up Manchin’s potential candidacy.
“Your Democratic colleague, Joe Manchin, is being courted by an outside effort to run independently 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 — there’s been no end of second-guessing and people moving the numbers around,” Murkowski replied. “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.”
“And so, an independent or somebody who is offering something in the middle,” she added. “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.”
“Would you support him if he decided to run?” Hoover asked.
“I tell you, if it’s a matchup between Biden and Trump, I know exactly where I’d go… I would go with Joe Manchin,” Murkowski responded, adding: “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.”
Despite Manchin’s potential run as an independent and Murkowski’s claims that he is “in the middle,” Manchin has always been a Democrat. While his policy positions align more closely with the Democrat Party’s platform prior to their shift toward the radical left, he still supports abortion, radical climate change policies and other left-leaning positions. Murkowski’s decision to support him is essentially an endorsement of the Democratic platform, regardless of which party he chooses to run under.
