Sen. Joe Manchin announces he is not running for president

welcome back to gma3 after months of speculation West Virginia senator Joe Mansion says he will not launch a third-party bid for the White House Senator Manson previously announced that he will not seek reelection to the Senate this fall fueling rumors of an independent Ron well here to discuss it all in an exclusive interview is West Virginia senator Joe manin himself good to see you and again thank you for being on we appreciate it well thank you DeMarco and Eve it's good to be with you all sen Senator you have a reputation being a politician who regularly votes outside of your party many were hopeful that you would make a run for president why are you not running for president and why are you why did you choose not to run for reelection well you first of all let me just say that uh the party the party never has guided me to where I felt like I had to just vote a party line I've never done that you I think you know that when I was the governor of the state of West Virginia I brought people together all the time Democrats and Republicans have solve problem problems so I don't look at the Republicans being on the other side or being my enemy they're my friends and they're my colleagues and they might have a different way of fixing a problem we've become dysfunctional now to where truly you're supposed to pick a side the other side your enemy and just go at it and that's not how we became the country that we are and it's not how we'll continue to be the superpower of the world so that worries me tremendously and when I start looking at how can I help my country more what can I do I decid I wasn't going to run again I I have come to the conclusion watching what happened in Washington and trying to do everything I could and we've had tremendous success for 14 years but I thought if you're going to make the changes to save our country it's going to come from outside of Washington DC the business model of the Republican and Democrat Party is very strong and very controlling in Washington but the central or what I call the common sense middle the sensible middle we're about 55% of all of us kind of live Our Lives center right center left not extreme right not extreme left but the extremes are sucking all the oxygen and leading the charge and the people in the middle which I include myself and many of the people watching feel the same homeless and helpless what do we do we got to pick a side I don't like either side uh but there's no place else to go so we've entertained a third party I've been involved with no labels since the beginning and they're wonderful people trying to do the right thing I just didn't feel right for me and I just got to the point where I didn't want to be in a situation that would be handicapping at one side of the other or be a spoiler and I felt the time was right for me just to go out and try to get people involved in changing the primary process how you get good people involved not having to be subservient to the party the political party so we have my daughter and I Heather started what we call Americans together trying to start a group that understands you can take charge and control you've got the majority of the votes 55 to 60% of the people are right where we are they need a voice to speak out and they' be a tremendous voting block Senator you have said in the past that you have never been more concerned about the threat to our democracy and the country that we are leaving our children and our grandchildren you know it's a big election year on one hand you got the president the current president who is being criticized because of his age and his ability to lead in the future on the other hand you have a former president who's running who's facing a mountain of legal trouble what concerns you most well I've been very clear I I know both uh both men and I've worked with both men tried to work the best I could and only thing I've said when you're in a position like a US senator you should always or an elected position you should always hope and pray that your president succeeds and does well and you got to do everything you can to help him and I've always tried to do that but with Donald Trump uh it makes it very very difficult for him as a person who is really centered about himself and uh looking at the betterment of the country and where we came from how we become the country they are I'll take it perfect example is our allies around the world NATO allies especially those who are willing to fight and die with us because they have our values of freedom and democracies and they're willing to fight and die for that and we become the superpower of the world because of many nations around the world that have our values and when you say that hey I'm going to throw you to the wolfs could care less if you don't do this there's other ways and they are paying up and I I approve that uh the Hardline position he took back when he was in term in 2017 to 2020 pay up do your 2% they're doing that in much more and supporting and Ukraine support but the thing that really got me more than anything Eva and and DeMarco was when I saw my Republican colleagues and Friends people I have the utmost respect for the 3D days before we totally committed to doing a border security and we have a great border security and DeMarco a fellow Oklahoma James Langford is one of the most decent human beings most conservative but extremely decent and moral values are unbelievable negotiated a bill that really secured our border and because Donald Trump came out against it for political reasons first of all I've said the border that we have today being unsecured as Jo ID's fault there's no other way to put it his policies were wrong he did it with the best of intentions thinking he was helping some of the displaced people around the world after a pandemic but they never shut it down or they never controlled it quick enough and it got out of hand totally out of hand he's finally come on board he' been negotiating and working and gave his stamp of approval on the bill we have in for before us the bipartisan uh border security Bill and Donald Trump comes and says oh no that's it's not good right now it it would uh help me better if we don't do anything until after the election we can't wait one more day we need to get this done immediately so Joe Biden was wrong in his policies Donald Trump is even more dangerous by not wanting to fix something that's fixable let's talk about this Congress cuz it's going to go down in history for the most unproductive you've been there for a while during more productive times what is going on and and is there anything that can be done to fix it well you're right even you've hit it right on the head it's they only they've only passed 39 bills on an average two-year of Congress we passed 500 to 523 bills is about the average since since when they've been keeping record on this so this will go down as the least productive Congress in the history of the United States of America and to be part of that is just so deflating you know there's so much good that we can do the 117th Congress which was the one 20 and 2122 uh will go down as the most productive one of the most productive congresses because you know why we were 5050 you couldn't blame anybody it's your fault you know we're together here so if you want to do something we've got to work collectively together Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and we did that we always got about four democrats for Republicans five Democrats five Republicans sometimes it grew to where we had 10 and 10 20 of us but always for the had our eye on the ball how do we fix the problems we have the Electoral count act we did that when no one thought we could do it the chips act the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the inflation reduction act which will be the most I think uh most transformative bill that we've ever seen bringing Investments and rebuilding manufacturing back in America and reducing the cost of Health Care to all our seniors so we've done a lot of good things because we knew we had to work together your senate seat is expected to flip red this fall does that concern you well it concerns me but I can't control I mean you know your immortality no matter what you may think you have to start dealing with this and here I am I've been at this since 1982 in some form of another as a citizen legislature then I become full-time into the political arena in 2001 when I was secretary State then I was governor of the state of West Virginia and now I've been uh uh Senate uh I'm thinking Bob bird we lost Bob bird in June of 2010 I wanted to finish my second term I was two years from that and when Bob bird died the senate seat opened up and I felt well we had the state in good shape maybe I can go to Washington and help bring some common sense cuz that's the way we worked in West Virginia we don't blame people we just try to fix what's wrong and make it better for people and I've had the tremendous opportunity to serve I think the the best people in the greatest state of the of the Union in my beautiful state of West Virginia and I've enjoyed every minute of it but it's been challenging and now I want to go out with Americans together and start teaching people how you can your voice can be heard use the power of your voting block 55% of the people that are in the center left center right that are forced right now to pick a side they don't like either side and right now both parties aren't uh aren't aren't supportive of the candidate they have in front of them and they have no other options so we're looking at everything we can to help and I just felt I could do more there I'm curious I have to ask you you haven't supported either candidate running for president any candidates running for president currently do you plan to at some point down the road well I'm sure at some point I'm going to have to because I've always participated ever since back when I started voting had to be 21 so I've been participating ever since I was of legal age to participate and I'm not going to set any election out right now I'm not endorsing anybody I've said very publicly I could not nor would I uh support or vote for Donald Trump I think it would be very detrimental to society and to our country and most importantly our standing in the world order I feel very strongly about that I wish he would change I don't think that's going to happen and uh I know know that my State's very red and he he has a lot of support here but I've got to be as truthful as I can because I said if I can come home and explain it I can vote for it well if I can come home and explain it I can tell you why I don't vote or support someone and I can do that and with Joe Biden he's been pushed so far to the left he's not the Joe Biden I've known for many years always kind of Center Center left maybe but Center not not out of the boundary of of the of the sensible mle and he's been pushed so far to the left we've got to see if he's going to come back and be the Joe Biden that we thought we elected in 2020 so there's a lot of stake right now and there's a lot of people still in play we have Independence running you've got uh uh no labels uh who are still intending to fill a candidate and we'll see what they produce and I'm just going to basically try to explain to people this country the strength of our country is that we unite we can always come together through a difficult time or crisis and right now that's being challenged the Border has to be secured the aid to Ukraine has to be done we cannot let Putin be victorious there and with that think about if he is victorious in Ukraine he will continue to move as he's intention to bring former Mother Russia back before the collapse of the Soviet Union he wants to bring that back that means he'll be challenging our NATO allies uh and the baltics especially and that happens we are committed to go to war with them that means we put our own soldiers our own men and women In Harm's Way where they'll blood will be shed I don't want that to to happen and I think supporting Ukraine is the best way for us to restore some order into a very uh a very unsettled world right now Senator you've been in the public eye for more than 40 years as a leader what do you think and what do you hope your legacy will be well you know I've done everything I thought that I could do to help first of all represent the people that I work for I don't work for a Democratic party or a Republican party or anything in between I work for the people West Virginia but I take an oath of uh in my office to support and defend the Constitution I take that as serious as anything I do and I've always said this if my country is doing well my state will do well if my State's doing well that means my country is doing well it goes handin hand so I've looked at everything I could do helping our miners making sure people understand getting an energy policy Works we're producing DeMarco more energy today than we ever have you don't hear President Biden talking about that he's talking about all the environmental things that has have been done and what I'm saying is you've got to have Dependable reliable and affordable energy dispatchable 24/7 and we're doing both we're producing more energy and we're investing in the new technologies for the future everyone's responsible to The Climate you cannot eliminate your way to a cleaner climate you can innovate your way and teach the rest of the world it's called Global Climate it's not called West Virginia or United States climate and we have to keep that so I've been very much involved chairman of the energy committee I wrote on the IRA the energy portion of that I wrote aund billion into the bipartisan infrastructure bill which gives us a hydrogen Hub here in West Virginia and six more around the country for new energy that can be dispatchable and then getting the miners their their long-term uh health care and and their retirement benefits lifetime what they work for and paid for finally are guaranteed and with the inflation reduction Bill we put capped $35 for insulin life saving insulin that it was going the prices were just ridiculous and on top of that out of pocket next year there won't be a person on Medicare that ever pay more than 2,00 ,000 a year for medication life-saving medication they need now that could be tens of $20,000 or more so we've done a lot of things I think that's been helping the most important thing on armed services I've supported my troops our troops anywhere and everywhere in the world we have the greatest military they need to be supported they need to know we have their back and never leave anyone behind so I feel good and I've done everything I possibly can do now if I can just go around and tell people in America what you can do you can demand I want better primaries I want to be able to have an Open Primary system I want I want basically uh to have term limits think about this woman one time very smart lady in West Virginia said Joe we should have term limits and this is 10 or 15 years ago even probably when you were maybe still here helping us and I said well I'm not sure you might lose some of your more professional people she said think about this Joe if we had term limits maybe we get one good term out of everybody and I could not argue with that she was exactly right then I'm totally determined that we have to have the movement a national movement for term limits in Congress so we can get good sharp people that want to work together to understand how the fabric of America really does fit together all right West Virginia senator Joe Mansion thanks a lot for coming on and thank you a special thank you to being so kind to a young reporter back in the day Eva pilgrim answered our phone calls and all of that we appreciate you well let me tell you one thing she was determined she was good and she was determined and she was tenacious she would not quit she kept coming after me all the time and I and I love that and look at her now all right thank you we appreciate it look at her now well I'm proud of her that's for sure all right we all are proud well hey there GMA fans Robin Roberts here thanks for checking out our YouTube channel lots of great stuff here so go on click the Subscribe button right over right over here to get more of Awesome videos and content from GMA every day anytime we thank you for watching and we'll see you in the morning on GMA

Channel: Good Morning America

Views: 1,574

Keywords: abc, candidate, congress, exclusive, interview, joe, manchin, news, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-107375030, politics, president, senator, third-party

Id: UbzsRQsTgXg

Length: 16min 39sec (999 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 20 2024