CNN’s Chris Wallace Says Trump Gets Boost From 3rd Party Candidacy: ‘Absolutely Hurts Joe Biden’

CNN anchor Chris Wallace said a Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) or Cornell West candidacy will boost ex-President Donald Trump and “absolutely hurts Joe Biden.”

On Wednesday night’s edition of CNN Primetime, host Laura Coates played some tape of Manchin being quizzed about his trip to New Hampshire, and asked Wallace how a third-party candidacy would affect President Biden’s chances:

COATES: Is Joe Manchin considering a third party run? The Democratic senator is not ruling it out as Manchin announces that he is going to New Hampshire for a no-labels conference. Listen to his explanation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): The most important thing is how do we help democracy do what it’s supposed to do? How do we help the process, the legal process that we do what it’s supposed to? That’s to have commonsense discussions to find out what the American people would like to see accomplished, not just basically the toxic atmosphere we have because of political parties. That’s what I think about.

MANU RAJU: So, are you ruling out a third party bid?

MANCHIN: I’ve never ruled out anything or ruled in anything. This is just strictly a conference that we’re having for commonsense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Back with Chris Wallace right after the buzzer there. Chris, what do you make of this consideration? I mean, David Axelrod recently warned that a third party candidate could very well hurt President Biden’s chances for re-election.

WALLACE: Well, in the last segment, we were talking about Ronna McDaniel not getting a yes-or-no answer. We didn’t get one from Joe Manchin either.

Look, a third party candidacy, and he’s talking about doing that on the no-labels banner potentially, you’ve got Cornell West talking about doing it in the green party. Remember, back in 2020, Joe Biden won some of these key swing states. I think it was Georgia by 11,000 votes, Arizona by 10,000 votes. If you get Joe Manchin on the ballot, if, if you get Cornell West on the ballot.

And I think most people would think that they would draw more votes from Biden than they would from Trump, then this is — you know, it’s a three-person, a four-person race, this absolutely hurts Joe Biden and increases the chances for Donald Trump if he’s the Republican nominee, whoever the Republican nominee, of actually taking a lot of those swing states. So, it’s a very big deal. And if you’re in the Biden White House, this has got to scare the heck out of you.

COATES: And, I mean, to have the noncommittal answer, not ruling anything out, if you’re a strategist looking ahead trying to figure out where to go from here, you want to nail down an answer so you can actually essentially do what you need to do to course correct, if that’s the case here.

Watch above via CNN Primetime.