Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) made a new pledge this week to help the next president be “successful” in the White House — regardless of who wins the general election.
“Well, let me just say this, whenever our president is elected, duly elected by the people which Joe Biden was done, which Donald Trump was done in 2016, I’m going to do everything I can to help my president be successful,” Manchin told Fox News host Neil Cavuto Friday in an interview on “Your World.”
Cavuto then asked him he would use the same approach to former President Trump, the likely GOP nominee, if he was voted into a second term. While the West Virginia senator acknowledged that he believed Trump’s rhetoric had become more “vengeful” lately, he said he would still support him if reelected.
He specifically called out Trump’s perceived silence on the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his recent attacks on GOP rival Nikki Haley for her husband — who is currently deployed overseas — not being with her on the campaign trail, as “vindictive.”
“You’d hope that we could have reason, sit down and make sure he doesn’t use the vengeful, vindictive tone he’s been touting right now and use a common decency that we all have and have to have in this type … civil country that we have,” Manchin said.
The senator — who was rumored to be mulling his own presidential run, but shut down the idea last week — added that he will try to bring the next Commander-in-Chief to “common sensibility.”
“I will not support someone who’s told me what they’re going to do and how they’re going to govern,” Manchin said. “But if they’re in that position, I’m going to try to work with them to bring them back to common sensibility.”
The moderate senator continued his approach by focusing on bringing the presumptive nominee closer to centrist politics. Earlier this week, he reiterated his stance that he would not endorse a candidate “right now.”
“We still got plenty of time here,” he said Monday. “I’m going to do everything I can to help move them back to the middle and show them where the strength of this country lies, where the voting bloc of the country lies.”
Manchin also announced in November that he would not run for another term in the Senate — a seat he has held since 2010.
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