Sen. Joe Manchin III calls on Biden to drop out of presidential race

Sen. Joe Manchin III on Sunday joined the growing list of senators to say publicly that President Biden should end his reelection bid.

“I came to the decision with a heavy heart that I think it’s time to pass the torch to a new generation,” Mr. Manchin, West Virginia independent, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

He called on Mr. Biden to be a “uniter.”

“I want him to be the president in the last five months of this presidency of his term, to do what he can do is unite our country, to calm down the rhetoric and be able to focus attention to peace in the world,” Mr. Manchin said. “Campaigning, I’ve been to statewide campaigns many times, it’s an unbelievable challenge to anybody, to anybody physically, mentally, every way, shape and form. And right now, the country and the world needs our president, Joe Biden, with the compassion he’s always had and the ability to bring people together to use all of his forces and energy towards that.”

Mr. Manchin, a former Democrat, said it’s time for a new generation of leaders. 

“I think that we have a lot of talent on the bench, a lot of good people,” he said, adding that he’s “partial to governors.”

“I’ve got two tremendous governors right next door to me and [Gov.] Andy Beshear in Kentucky and [Gov.] Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania, who are operating with legislators either evenly split or completely opposite of their party affiliation,” he said. “They haven’t divided their state. They haven’t made you pick aside and demonize the other side. They brought people together. This is what an open process would do.”

Mr. Beshear and Mr. Shapiro are Democrats.

Mr. Manchin said an open process would bring more people out to vote and bring Democrats who are on the fence about the party back.

He said he hasn’t said anything because he was waiting for the president to evaluate the decision himself, to hear what his colleagues have been saying and see what donors have been doing.

Mr. Manchin is the fifth senator to say publicly that Mr. Biden should leave the race, following Democratic Sens. Peter Welch of Vermont, Jon Tester of Montana, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Sherrod Brown of Ohio.