I haven't
made any decision, nor will
I make a decision
until the end of the year.
And my reason for that,
I've never seen a place in the world.
Basically,
the next election starts
the day after the last election
That was Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat,
refusing to rule out a third party
presidential run.
After speaking to a bipartisan group
in New Hampshire
last night,
the West Virginia
senator told CNN's Kaitlan Collins
that Americans
deserve another option in 2024.
CNN's Jeff Zeleny reports.
Senator Joe Manchin openly
flirting with a third party
presidential bid in New Hampshire.
We're here to make sure
that the American people have an option.
And the option is
can you move the political parties
off their respective sides?
They've gone too far
right and too far left.
What he calls a unity ticket
many Democrats
fear could be a spoiler
by siphoning
just enough votes from President Biden
to help Donald Trump win back
the White House.
I've never been any race
I've ever spoiled.
I've been in races to win.
And if I get in a race, I'm going to win.
At a town hall meeting in Saint Anselm,
College in New Hampshire,
Manchin of West Virginia Democrat,
and Jon Huntsman,
a former
Utah Republican governor,
made their pitch for No Labels.
A bipartisan group
trying to move the nation
beyond its partizan gridlock.
Afterward, they sat down
with CNN's Kaitlan Collins.
Right now,
people are sick and tired of what
they're seeing and upset about.
All they see is turmoil and havoc.
And we can do better than this.
And the people expect us to do better.
And this is a good movement.
They said Americans deserve
a third choice
if a rematch emerges next year
between Biden and Trump.
Should the political, the mainstream
political system produce
the same
results in 24 as it did
in 20, in which case
three fourths of the American voters
have said, no, not again.
We want an option for more than a decade.
The No Labels movement has promoted
bipartisanship over extremes.
The group,
which registers
as a nonprofit and declines
to disclose
its donors,
plans to raise $70 million
for a candidate in waiting.
On Monday night,
the group unveiled
what it called a common sense policy
book, aiming to find middle ground
on controversial issues from abortion
rights to guns to immigration.
It's a centrist agenda
that sounds downright utopian
in today's deeply divided Washington.
We're trying
to make sure the parties understand
you can't stay in the extreme left
or extreme right.
No Labels has only secured
ballot access in Arizona,
Alaska, Oregon, Utah and Colorado.
Aides say
with the goal of reaching
20 states by the end of the year.
Another threat to Biden's reelection
bid comes from Cornel West,
the former Harvard scholar
who is mounting a Green Party
presidential bid.
He, too, rejects the label of spoiler.
I wish they would spend as much time
focusing on the plight of poor
and working people as they do
focusing on the spoiler.
I don't even like that.
Categorizing so many of folk who vote
third party don't vote at all.
But third
party efforts
have shown little promise in modern
American history.
Deep displeasure
with Trump
in Biden
have shined a brighter
light on the prospects this year.
Mindful of an enthusiasm
shortfall facing Biden,
Democrats are increasingly
sounding the alarm.
Haunted by Ross Perot's
independent bid in 1992 and Green Party
runs from Ralph Nader in 2000
Jill Stein in 2016.
Manchin who has yet to say
if he intends
to seek reelection
to the Senate next year
or run for higher office
dismissed such concerns
I'm not here
running for president tonight.
I'm not.
I'm here
trying to basically save the nation.
There was significant interest
in this idea,
of course
here in New Hampshire,
where the presidential primary
process begins.
Many voters
say they are taking a look
at this organization.
Manchin, for his part,
said he will make a decision
by the end of the year.
No Labels will make a decision next year
when they see
if there is a Trump Biden
rematch in the offing.
There is no doubt, though,
hanging over all of this,
even though
Manchin says he's not a spoiler.
Some Democrats at the White House
and supporters of Joe Biden
are not so sure.
In Abby.
All right.
Jeff Zeleny,
joining us now,
our politics reporter
for some of our Semaphore Chief,
Shelby Talcott,
a national political reporter
for Axios, Alex Thompson.
All right, Alex I loved
Dick Durbin, who's the number two
senator in the Democratic caucus,
referred to Joe Manchin as America's
biggest political tease.
Which I think is a fair
and accurate assessment to some degree.
I am so highly skeptical of this
and so highly skeptical
of paying attention to it.
Am I wrong?
You know, it's talking to somebody in
Joe mentions camp last night
and that that person would say
that you are wrong, that this is serious.
And in fact,
Joe Manchin sort of sees this opposition,
all of this,
you know what
he would see
as handwringing from Democrats
and actual more encouragement
for him to continue doing what he's doing
because they say
this is evidence that No Labels
is actually tapping into something real.
They are tapping into
what the polls show is that
America does not want
a Biden Trump rematch.
And so I think he is
the biggest
political tease
but I also think that
with more attention,
the more serious he becomes, you know,
I couldn't help but notice
in a small thing,
we noticed
he was styling his hair
a little bit differently.
He was using a little bit more product.
He was like, pardon
the hair a little bit.
This is so full disclosure.
This is like my favorite thing
from last night
and this morning
because I have been chuckling
about this fact for the better part.
And I saw it in your notes this morning.
I was like, thank you.
I'm not the only crazy person here
because it's true.
The hairstyle is different.
And we as reporters
are naturally reading all the tea leaves.
What does it mean,
Alex Thompson,
that there's product in Joe Manchin.
When I asked this person,
I was just like, What?
And they were like,
Yeah, it was a little bit
different and mentions here.
It's actually been weirdly a bit part
of his political personality.
He ran ads about how his wife
cut his hair in his reelection bid.
So I don't know what's going on.
A split screen is
are the important things
that we're going to dig into.
No, I love it because you're right.
And I also like a lot of that.
But it is different.
Yeah. Yeah, that's true.
And now I'll be reading the tea leaves.
I mean, maybe he's trying to
I don't know.
Is it party to the left or to the right?
I don't know.
But, Shelby,
look, the argument
I mean, then they get asked this
pretty much
every time they talk about No Labels
aren't you just going to take away,
especially if you don't want Trump
to be the president,
take away from the Democrat.
And there is polling to suggest
that people who don't like both
parties are more likely
if they're given a choice of the two
to vote for the Democrat.
So how concerned are both parties
right now?
Do you sense more concern on the left
or on the right?
I think there's
definitely more concern on the left.
But I will say that Trump's campaign
is keeping an eye on everything.
They say that
they keep an eye
on this on what Biden is doing, on
what Tim Scott is doing,
what every candidate is doing.
But at this point,
I do think based on that polling,
that Trump's team is viewing
this potentially
as an opportunity,
because a lot of people believe that
if Joe Manchin were to run,
he would take more votes away from
Joe Biden.
Now, I will tell you,
Joe Manchin
does not think
that he believes
that he can take votes away
from Donald Trump.
And he also believes
that there is a very
narrow way for him to win
through some of these red states.
And I think he
his point of view is that
that is something
that people are not picking up on
or don't or don't see.
And that's his angle.
And he's definitely keeping the door,
not just the red states,
but these Rust Belt states that he won
in 2016.
The margin was basically Jill
Stein's vote.
So there's no evidence for that.
No. One, it's what drives the concern.
But it's also Jeff's
only made a great point to me
the other day that
Democrats are at least inside
Biden's team,
are more concerned about Cornel West
as somebody who could actually
siphon away.
Shelby, I do want to ask
you've got Newark.
We've had tons of great
reporting on the Sanders campaign.
And where they stand right now,
obviously in the midst
of a little bit of an overhaul.
We have the interview
with Jake Tapper tonight,
which is certainly a shift
in media strategy.
But there
something that was in one of your stories
from a big donor from DeSantis
that I wanted to read off to you,
because it was an interesting
kind of contrary view,
which is it's from Dan Eberhart,
who told you
the campaign is smart to adapt.
Scott Walker's campaign was too heavy
and didn't make changes soon enough.
The senator's campaign
is ahead of the curve
and is making the tough choices
that will enable them to win
in the early primary states and beyond.
And I feel like that isn't necessarily
considered as a possibility
at this point. Right?
You start the spiral as a candidate
and campaign
and everybody writes
you off, you're dead.
That becomes
kind of the narrative that sticks
but maybe they learned from Scott
Walker's implosion.
He was on with Danny yesterday.
And the parallels,
I think
certainly on the surface are there.
Do you think that
they have figured out a way to quickly
shift and adapt
and put themselves back into play here?
I think it's a little bit
too soon to tell,
but I will say that
donors are very split.
You have the Dan Everhart of the
DeSantis campaign.
They are kind of diehard
DeSantis
donors who I think
will stick with him for a very long time.
And then you have a group
who are very skeptical
and growing more skeptical.
And this shakeup
placated some but worried others more.
And I and
I do think that there's an opportunity
for him
to kind of take like the John McCain
the McCain
type situation where,
you know,
he fires his campaign manager
or he shakes
things up
a little bit more aggressively
and he ends up doing a lot better
to come back.
So it's plausible, definitely plausible.
And, you know,
part of this shift in media
strategy is part of this.
I mean, I don't think you can overstate
how much his approach to mainstream
media has changed
from just two months ago.
In this Jake Tapper interview
this afternoon
is just the latest instance of it.
And Republicans
are all going to be tuning in.
Some will be popping popcorn, too.
And it's really interesting
because he is
internally
his team has been very split over
whether to do mainstream interviews
like the Jake Tapper interview.
So it's it's extremely notable
that he's doing it this and also,
you know,
praising Jake
we love Jake,
but you wouldn't have heard
that from Ron
DeSantis just a couple of months ago
as they were trying to
criticize most of the media
that's not named Fox
News and folks on the right.
Yeah.
Everybody in politics
can be watching, Jake.