Independent Sen. Joe Manchin (WV) is officially breaking his ties with President Joe Biden, calling on him to step down.
“He will go down with a legacy unlike many people as one of the finest and surely a patriot, an American," Manchin said during an interview with ABC's "This Week." "And so with that, I come with a heavy heart to think the time has come for him to pass the torch to a new generation."
“I want him to be the president in the last five months of this presidency of his term, to do what he can do is unite our country, to calm down the rhetoric and be able to focus attention to peace in the world,” Manchin continued. “Campaigning, I’ve been to statewide campaigns many times; it’s an unbelievable challenge to anybody, to anybody physically, mentally, every way, shape, and form. And right now, the country and the world need our President Joe Biden, but the compassion he’s always had and the ability to bring people together to use all of his forces and energy towards that.”
However, Manchin still has great confidence in Biden’s ability to serve out the rest of his term and does not have concerns about his health, although the 81-year-old president is facing mounting pressure from top Democrats to exit from the race, citing cognitive decline.
Manchin is also advocating for an “open process” in the coming weeks to select a replacement.
“I think that we have a lot of talent on the bench, a lot of good people,” he said. “I’ve got two tremendous governors right next door to me and Andy Beshear in Kentucky and Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania who are operating with legislators either evenly split or completely opposite of their party affiliation. They haven’t divided their state. They haven’t made you pick aside and demonize the other side. They brought people together. This is what an open process would do.”