Republican Senator Refuses to Choose Between Trump and Biden In a Rematch: ‘I’d Go With Manchin’

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) told PBS’s Margaret Hoover on Thursday that she would cross party lines and vote for Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) – if he ran as a third party candidate – over former President Donald Trump or President Joe Biden, were those her options.

Murkowski was on PBS’s Firing Line and was asked about the impact of third-party candidates on the 2024 presidential election.

“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?” Hoover asked.

“Yeah, you know, there’s there’s been no end of second-guessing and people moving the numbers around,” Murkowski replied, adding:

I don’t know on that. Others are smarter than me with with with elections and can weigh in there and they certainly have. Think about it. If 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. I can tell you, I’m talking to people up north. They’re asking because they know that I’m very close with Joe Manchin and I brought him up to this state a couple of times and he endorsed me. I’ve endorsed him.

Hoover clarified that Murkowski has only endorsed Manchin in his previous runs for the U.S. Senate and asked, “Now, would you support him if he decided to run?”

“I tell you, 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,” Murkowski replied.

“I am one who doesn’t like to use my vote for the lesser of evils. I want to 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,” the longtime Republican concluded.

Watch the clip above via PBS.

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