'Nobody better than these two?' Murkowski swipes at Biden and Trump in favor of Manchin
United States Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said on Thursday's edition of Firing Line with Margaret Hoover that if the 2024 presidential election ends up being a rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump that she would rather support a third-party candidate.
Murkowski also revealed that she hopes that person is Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia), who for months has flirted with a White House run.
"Your Democratic colleague, Joe Manchin, is being courted by an outside effort to run as an independent in the 2024 election. This has been called by the organization 'No Labels,' 'an insurance policy.' Do you see any scenario where a third-party candidacy isn't a spoiler for Donald Trump and just returns him to the White House?" PBS correspondent Margaret Hoover asked Murkowski.
READ MORE: 'A label I can’t mention': Columnist blasts Manchin’s No Labels appearance
"Yeah, you know, there's, there's been no end of second-guessing and people moving the numbers around. I don't know, on that — others far smarter than me with elections can weigh in there and they certainly have — I think about it. If we go into a 2024 scenario where it's basically a redo of 2020 between Trump and Biden, what does that say? That we have nobody better than these two? And so an independent or somebody who is offering something in the middle, people are hungry for that," Murkowski replied.
"I can tell you I'm talking to people up north. They're asking cuz they know that I'm very close with Joe Manchin. And I brought him up to the state a couple times and he endorsed me. I've endorsed him for his Senate reelection and he endorsed me for my Senate reelection," Murkowski continued. "And I have no qualms, no qualms, providing my endorsement to a Democrat who I think has been not only extraordinarily helpful to me and Alaskan issues, but in the Senate as well, and Alaskans are saying, 'Can you talk Joe into running?'"
Conceding that "that's not for me to do," Murkowski said that "I do think about what a third party will bring to the equation. We've seen it before on multiple occasions, very wealthy people who had an opportunity to fund their race, who weren't able to cut through. You know, maybe it was just not the right time. Maybe now would be a more opportune time if you decided to run. You just don't know."
Hoover therefore wondered, "Would you support him if you decided to run?"
READ MORE: Third parties never win, because they can’t
Murkowski opined that "If it's a matchup between Biden and Trump, I know exactly where I'd go. I would go with, I would go with Joe Manchin. I am one who doesn't like to use my vote for the lesser of evils. I wanna be proactive in who I think could do the job. I think Manchin could do the job. But will our system allow for that? That I don't know."
Hoover then posited, "How would you determine that that vote wouldn't send Trump back to the White House?"
Murkowski explained that she "would really have to do some serious evaluation," and stressed that "this is, this is July of 2023, and who knows, who knows what's gonna happen in the months ahead. We just don't know."
Watch below via Firing Line with Margaret Hoover or at this link.
