Sen. Joe Manchin III declined to say whether Nikki Haley would be a better president than Joe Biden.
“Well, I’m not going to say who would be a better president. I know that Nikki Haley is in the fight and I think she’s done a tremendous job so far and she’s holding her ground and she’s speaking truth to power and not afraid to go head-to-head with Donald Trump. And we’ll just see what ends up,” the West Virginia Democrat said Monday on CNN.
The Democratic lawmaker said President Biden has moved “too far left” and that Ms. Haley, still running for the Republican presidential nomination, is “trying to find that middle, to where the middle has some strength and power.”
Mr. Manchin said the former South Carolina governor would be “very strong [and] attractive” as a third-party candidate.
“I’m not endorsing anybody right now. We’re going to see what all happens. We still got plenty of time here,” Mr. Manchin said last week, also on CNN. “I’m going to do everything I can, to help move them back to the middle, and show them where the strength of this country lies, where the voting bloc of the country lies.”
When asked in that interview if people should read into him not endorsing the president, Mr. Manchin said he’s just “trying to do everything I can to make sure that we have a pathway forward, where the center of this country is going to be represented.”
Ms. Haley lost the primary in her home state of South Carolina Saturday to former President Donald Trump by roughly 20 percentage points. He also beat her in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. She has pledged to stay in the race until Super Tuesday on March 5.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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