FIRST ON FOX – Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., fired back at CNN analyst and former Obama advisor David Axelrod on Monday after the latter called him a "dead man walking" in West Virginia.
Axelrod joined the hosts of "CNN This Morning" on Monday to discuss Manchin, a moderate Democrat who hasn't ruled out a possible third-party bid for the White House.
"I don’t want to be unkind to Senator Manchin, but he’s kind of [a] dead man walking in West Virginia. There’s nowhere for him to go. He’s got a popular Republican governor in a state that Donald Trump pretty much carried by almost 40 points. He didn’t win by very much last time. So he knows that he can’t win re-election in that state. This would be a graceful exit for him. And he may believe there are people in that ‘No Labels’ movement trying to persuade him that he could actually win in a race with Biden and Trump," Axelrod said.
A Manchin spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the senator's focus is on West Virginia.
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"This is a funny comment about polls since the same smart pollsters said Barack Obama’s poll numbers proved he had no chance against Hilary Clinton, Donald Trump could never win the first election, and Republicans would win huge in 2022. Senator Manchin’s focus is on doing the best job for West Virginia and the American people. The only poll that matters is the one on Election Day," a Manchin spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Monday.
Manchin has a unique status as a Democrat elected to statewide office in West Virginia, one of the country's reddest places in recent presidential elections. Trump carried every county in the state in 2020 over Biden, winning by nearly 39 points.
Manchin did not rule out a third-party run during an interview with Fox News' Shannon Bream on Sunday.
Bream asked Manchin about the bipartisan group, "No Labels" who is reportedly eyeing Manchin for a third-party run.
"No Labels has been moving and pushing very hard the centrist middle. Making commonsense decisions," Manchin said, sidestepping the question. "People that basically expect us to do our job and not put the political party ahead of the policy in our great country. That’s what we’ve seen happening, and there’s more noise and more extremism coming from the far left and the far right."
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Bream asked Manchin multiple times if he was considering a third-party run.
"Not ruling anything in, not ruling anything out," Manchin said.
Manchin told NBC's Chuck Todd on Sunday that he believed Biden was being "pushed to the far left."
"And that far-left is not, basically, where the country is," he said. "And the far-right is not where the country is. Coming back to the middle, then we can continue to bring people to the middle and do our job."
Manchin's Senate seat was a top target for Republicans in 2018, but he was narrowly re-elected. His three-point victory, however, was a far cry from his comfortable 24-point win in 2012.
Fox News' Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
