Joe Manchin slams partisan politics, won’t rule out third party bid

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin blasted America’s “extreme abnormal” politics and accused both Democrats and Republicans of demonizing each other — while not ruling out a potential third party bid for president.

“People… are looking for common answers. They want to live their lives in a more normal atmosphere. And this is not normal. This is so abnormal — the political arena that we’re in today,” Manchin, a moderate Democrat, told radio show host John Catsimatidis on WABC 770 AM’s “The Cats Roundtable” Sunday.

“What’s scary is people are starting to believe it’s never going to change. They’re starting to accept the extreme abnormal … [There’s] nothing normal about this whatsoever,” he said.

The senator blamed fellow Democrats as well as Republicans for fueling the toxic atmosphere that has alienated many voters. 

“If you’re a Democrat, they expect you to villainize every Republican. And if you’re a Republican, you should villainize the Democrats,” Manchin said.

“That’s not the way our founding fathers intended for this democracy to work,” he added. “It was intended for us to work together.”

Manchin did not mention President Biden or former President Donald Trump by name.

But polling has showed that even a large number of Democrats prefer that Biden, 80, not seek re-election, while Trump, 77, faces four criminal indictments during his comeback bid for the White House.

Manchin talked up the group No Labels, which has been pushing a potential “unity ticket” as a third option in the 2024 presidential race.

“All they’re asking for is ‘Do the citizens of the United States want some other options?’” he said. 

Manchin has thus far refused to rule out a third-party bid, and recently co-headlined a No Labels event with former Republican Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman.

Former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-Independent and the founding chairman of No Labels, agreed in his own interview with Catsimatidis that there is “too much hatred” in Washington.

“There’s always been differences of opinion,” Lieberman said Sunday. “But today, you just don’t have a difference of opinion and a debate on an issue on the floor in Congress. You treat the other person as if they were the member of an enemy nation.

“What motivates us is not that we want to run a ticket,” he added. “But we hope that maybe the strength that we’re showing will be a message to the two parties to try to come back toward the center and, not to change what they think is right, but to begin to work together for the good of the country.”

Manchin said No Labels should be prepared to run a bipartisan third party tickets if the two major political parties nominate candidates for president who are unacceptable to a large swath of voters.

“Whatever you see coming out of No Labels… it’s going to be a former Democrat, former Republican, probably at the top of their ticket, showing that you can bring this country together by governing together — not by condemning the other side, which is what they do now,” he said.

Billionaire businessman Ross Perot is the last candidate to run a serious third party bid for president in the 1990s. He died in 2019.