Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., responded Wednesday to the far-left protesters who swarmed him at a New Hampshire diner, saying they only want to be disruptive and not hear what he has to say.
Members of the far-left climate protest organization Climate Defiance confronted him chanting slogans about ending fossil fuel reliance, with one activist even jumping in front of Manchin's car. The moderate Democrat has taken heat from the left over his energy stances.
"They're paid activists," Manchin told "FOX & Friends" about the incident. "The same group is there everywhere I go. I understand, and I try to talk to them. They don't want to listen. I said we are providing more secured energy today and investing in the energy of the future… It's just the way they are. They have one goal and one goal only, and that's the rights of Americans, but they don't have the right to come in private establishments… I don't see them being harmful. They're just very loud and boisterous and want to be disruptive. They don't want to hear."
Manchin said the country was investing in new, carbon-free technologies while also not destroying the fossil fuel industry.
CLIMATE ACTIVISTS SWARM JOE MANCHIN AT DINER, JUMP IN FRONT OF SUV: ‘WE SHUT HIM DOWN SO HARD’
"You cannot eliminate your way to a clean environment. You can innovate it through technology," Manchin said.
Manchin has already declared he won't seek another term in the U.S. Senate representing West Virginia, where he defied the odds by winning in 2018 as a Democrat despite former President Trump carrying the state in landslides in 2016 and 2020.
Asked by co-host Brian Kilmeade if he was planning to jump in and run for president on the bipartisan "No Labels" ticket, Manchin said "let's see what happens."
Kilmeade wondered if Manchin would run if indeed there is a rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in 2024, which looks like the strongest possibility after Trump scored a crushing win in the Iowa caucuses this week. Manchin didn't confirm he would run, but didn't shut down the possibility either.
"If [No Labels] get on the ballots and you are their nominee, do you believe you'd win?" Kilmeade asked.
"Well, I’m not going to be a spoiler," he said. "If there is a pathway forward, I’ve always been involved and very competitive, I would get involved. I'm going to definitely want to win and I'm going to fight to win. I'm not going to go in there just trying to harm somebody or help somebody else. I want to make sure we create a different option bringing people together."
Biden allies have fumed that any such third-party bid by Manchin or another alterative would siphon votes away from the Democratic ticket and potentially hand the presidency to Trump. Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville, who has repeatedly sounded the alarm on Biden's poor polling numbers, said last year "No Labels" was offering b------t" to Americans.
Manchin said Wednesday that Biden had been pushed "too far to the left."
"I think no matter who your president is, whether you're for him or against him, same party or not, you want your president to succeed," Manchin said. "I think President Biden has been pushed too far to the left… He should be coming back to the center or center left, which is where we make most of our decisions. That's where the economy is, that's where the country is."
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Manchin added it was false to think the border situation had improved under President Biden since the Trump administration, encouraging the White House to declare a national emergency and take action to secure the border if Congress couldn't agree on a plan.
