Manchin: Failed border bill factored into decision not to run for White House

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) explained Monday that the Senate’s recent failure to pass a long-sought bipartisan border security package played a “big part” in his decision against a White House bid this cycle.

While Manchin said he agreed President Biden has been “wrong on the border,” the collapse of the bill revealed something else to him.

“I always believed that we could … legislate through a crisis. We’d come together for a crisis,” Manchin said during in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “Well, guess what? We have a crisis. The border is a crisis.”

“And I saw my friends walk away, when they were determined to pass a border security. And they were on board three days before that,” he added. “And with Donald Trump, coming as hard as he came at them, and they cowered down and walked away? I said, ‘We’re not fixing anything in Washington.'”

The border deal failed due to GOP opposition earlier this month following months of negotiations between both sides of the aisle, and Biden. The bill was part of a larger emergency foreign aid package that included additional aid for Ukraine and Israel’s war efforts, as well as Indo-Pacific security, after Senate Republicans repeatedly insisted any aid to Ukraine must be linked with border security reform.

GOP members in the upper chamber also faced heavy pressure from former President Trump to block the bill.

A bipartisan group of moderate House lawmakers, however, unveiled an emergency funding bill Friday including aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as well as an addition to the border security policy — after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) refused to bring the Senate bill to the floor for a vote.

Manchin announced last week he will not launch a presidential bid, capping off months of speculation he might mount a third-party bid. He already announced in November he will not seek reelection in the Senate and would shift his focus toward mobilizing a movement in the middle.

In the same interview, the West Virginia senator said he is not endorsing a White House candidate just yet, claiming his focus remains on the center.

“The sensible reasonable middle of this country makes up 55 percent to 60 percent of the population in voting, a tremendous voting bloc,” he said. “But they feel homeless right now.”

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