Manchin on endorsing Biden in 2024: ‘Let’s see who’s involved’

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) did not outright offer his support to President Biden should he become the Democratic nominee for president in 2024, instead saying that he wanted to wait and see “who all the players are.”

“The bottom line is, let’s see who’s involved,” Manchin said in an interview with CBS’s “Face The Nation.” “Let’s wait until we see who all the players are. Let’s just wait until it all comes out.”

Manchin, one of the most moderate Democrats in Congress, has been an irritant to liberals and progressives in his party, and has publicly split with Biden for what he has called some in his party pushing the president too far to the left.

“We’ve got a runaway debt, we’ve got inflation that’s killing people, we’ve got unsecured energy, we have a border that’s out of control — you’re telling me we’re in the same ballgame, in the same ballpark? I don’t think so,” Manchin said.

Manchin is notoriously noncommittal about what, if any, office he plans to run for when his term is up in 2024. He previously suggested he would not run for president, but has since walked back the comments, saying they were made “in jest.”

“I’m not taking anything off the table and I’m not putting anything on the table,” Manchin said. “I said I’ll make a decision at the end of this year.”

Manchin will likely face pressure from Senate Democrats to run for reelection in West Virginia, as the party faces a less-than-favorable Senate map in 2024, with a number of opportunities for Republicans to pick up Democratic seats, including in West Virginia.

But Manchin’s more tepid attitude toward Biden comes as many in the party have begun to line up behind the incumbent president, who is expected to announce a reelection campaign in the coming months. Polling suggests, however, that Democratic voters might be open to an alternative to head the party’s ticket in 2024.