Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said during an interview this week that if the 2024 presidential election is a rematch of the last election, she will vote for one of her colleagues, Joe Manchin (D-WV).
Murkowski told PBS’ Margaret Hoover on “Firing Line” in an interview that aired Friday that she would vote for Manchin for president if he runs as a third party candidate.
“Your Democratic colleague, Joe Manchin, is being courted by an outside effort to run as an independent in the 2024 election,” Hoover said. “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?”
“Yeah, you know, there’s been no end of second-guessing and people moving the numbers around,” Murkowski responded. “I don’t know on that. Others are smarter than me with elections [and] can weigh in there and they certainly have. 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,” she continued. “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.”
A few moments later, Hoover asked Murkowski if she would support Manchin if he decided to run as a third party candidate.
“I tell you, if it’s a matchup between Biden and Trump, I know exactly where I’d go,” she said. “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,” she continued. “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.”
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WATCH:
"If it's a matchup between Biden and Trump, I know exactly where I'd go. I would go with Joe Manchin," GOP Sen. @lisamurkowski tells @MargaretHoover.
She says she doesn't want to vote "for the lesser of evils."
"I want to be proactive….I think Manchin could do the job.” (1/2) pic.twitter.com/LNiqLPROYd
— Firing Line with Margaret Hoover (@FiringLineShow) July 20, 2023