New Hampshire

He says he’s not campaigning, so what is Joe Manchin doing in New Hampshire?

Published

2 years ago

January 13, 2024

He says he’s not campaigning, so what is Joe Manchin doing in New Hampshire?

Manchester, New Hampshire — It’s presidential primary season, and less than two weeks before the New Hampshire primary, while politicians are trekking across the state asking for votes, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is here, too.

He’s not on either major party’s primary ballot, but he’s not exactly ruling out running for president, and he was in Manchester Friday talking to voters.

“I’m not here campaigning. I’m here basically, concerned about my country, same as you,” Manchin told a room of donors and local political leaders at St. Anselm College, at the first of two events featuring the longtime West Virginia Democrat. “Wherever life takes me, I’m willing to do, but I’m gonna give everything I have to save the country.”

Manchin, who announced earlier this year he would not seek reelection to his Senate seat, headed to New Hampshire to start a national “listening tour” along with his daughter, Heather Manchin Bresch, as they launch their centrist political group, Americans Together, aimed at pushing major political donors into promoting more moderate-leaning candidates and policies.

He said he’d consider a third-party run if President Biden and former President Donald Trump win their respective parties’ presidential nominations. When an attendee at St. Anselm asked Manchin who he’d vote for in a 2020 rematch, Manchin responded, “That’s a difficult question right there.”

Politics & Eggs With Senator Joe Manchin — Senator Joe Manchin in Manchester, New Hampshire on Friday, Jan. 12, 2024.

Bloomberg / Getty Images

“You have to make a decision, the character of that candidate, whether you agree or disagree, whether you support or haven’t supported, whether you’re in the same political party or not,” Manchin said. “The people that are just telling me I’m going to vote for the Democrat because I’m a Democrat. I’m going to vote Republican, no matter who it is. That’s bullcrap. Vote for the person. Vote for the best person that should be leading this country.”

One man asked him, “How would you feel if a bunch of Democrats in New Hampshire wrote in ‘Joe’ — not Biden, but wrote in ‘Joe Manchin’?”

“I cannot prevent whatever you want to do,” Manchin replied, receiving a round of applause from the donor-filled crowd.

He provided scant detail to reporters about the next stops on his listening tour, saying, “I have to talk to my daughter, I have still a job to do, and she tells me when I can go wherever my schedule allows.”

He seemed to distance himself from No Labels, the bipartisan group that’s working to get a potential third-party candidate on the ballot in November, while promoting his daughter’s venture.

“I still believe that the cause is worthy of trying to find that middle and give you a venue. Americans Together has basically stepped forward. We’re completely different and not connected in any way, shape, or form” Manchin said, adding, “If it has an impact or not, I don’t know. We’re gonna find out. But it’s not the short game.”

“I think it’s admirable what they’re trying to do to provide an option,” Manchin continued when speaking with reporters after his remarks. He opined that No Labels — or any other group — would have to launch its campaign with a candidate attached by Super Tuesday, March 5.

Sen. Joe Manchin doesn’t rule out 2024 White House bid

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Manchin’s listening tour wasn’t without drama.

At his second stop, a diner in Derry, Manchin was greeted by a handful of New Hampshire voters, as well as a group of college students from Minnesota who are living in New Hampshire through the state’s primary on Jan. 23.

As he began speaking to the small crowd in a back room, he was blitzed by activists from the group Climate Defiance, who protested at both Manchin events today.

Police intervened after dozens of protesters rushed the event space chanting “Off fossil fuels, Manchin, off fossil fuels!” After a few minutes, they were escorted out of the room.

Manchin, who grew up in a coal-mining town in West Virginia, has fought for continued oil pipeline and energy development in the U.S.

Manchin and his daughter announced the formation of Americans Together in August, and they conceived of it as a centrist political group that would work on curbing federal spending, boosting domestic energy production, tightening border security and fighting crime.

Manchin Bresch, the first woman to run a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company, stepped down as CEO of Mylan, the maker of EpiPen, in 2020. She told the Wall Street Journal in August that Americans Together would be a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, which means that it is not required to disclose its donors.

Hunter Woodall and Ed O’Keefe contributed reporting.

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New Hampshire

Senate panel endorses reporting exemption for players on New Hampshire Fisher Cats

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1 hour ago

March 10, 2026

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Senate panel endorses reporting exemption for players on New Hampshire Fisher Cats

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New Hampshire

Possible 2028 Democratic White House contenders weigh in on Iran with New Hampshire voters

Published

14 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

Possible 2028 Democratic White House contenders weigh in on Iran with New Hampshire voters

As the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran overtakes the foreign policy debate in Washington, two Democratic governors with potential 2028 presidential aspirations — Gavin Newsom and Andy Beshear — recently traveled to New Hampshire, introducing themselves to the state’s famously engaged voters. The two weighed in on the war and both criticized and questioned President Trump’s strategy and endgame.

“If a president is going to take a country into war, and risk the lives of American troops and Americans in the region, he has to have a real justification and not one that seems to change every five to 10 hours,” Beshear told CBS News after a Democratic fundraiser in Keene.

“This President seems to use force before ever trying diplomacy, and he has a duty to sell it to the American people and to address Congress with it,” Beshear continued. “He hasn’t done any of that. In fact, it appears there isn’t even a plan for what success looks like. He’s gone from regime change to strategic objectives and now is talking about unconditional surrender, which isn’t realistic where he is.”

Beshear also said he thought that Congress should have reined in Mr. Trump’s war powers.

“He is trying to ignore Congress. He’s trying to even ignore the American people,” Beshear said.

He went on to note that the president’s State of the Union address took place “three — four days before he launched this attack,” and Mr. Trump “didn’t even have the respect to tell the American people the threat that he thought Iran posed to us.”

Last week, both the House and the Senate failed to pass resolutions to limit Mr. Trump’s war powers and stop him from taking further military action against Iran without congressional support.

Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear speaks with voters in Keene, New Hampshire, on March 7, 2026.

Anne Bryson

For Newsom, the war with Iran constitutes part of a broader criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

At an event last Tuesday in Los Angeles, Newsom had compared Israel to an “apartheid state.” Later, in New Hampshire, he sought to clarify his comment.

“I was specifically referring to a Tom Friedman [New York Times] column last week, where Tom used that word of apartheid as it relates to the direction Bibi is going, particularly on the annexation of the West Bank,” Newsom explained during a book tour event Thursday night in Portsmouth. “I’m very angry, with what he is doing and why he’s doing it, what he’s going to ultimately try to do to the Supreme Court there, what he’s trying to do to save his own political career.”

Friedman wrote that at the same time that the U.S. and Israel are prosecuting a war in Iran, within Israel, Netanyahu’s government has undertaken efforts to annex the West Bank, driving Palestinians from their homes; fire the attorney general who is leading the prosecution against Netanyahu for corruption; and block the government’s attempt to establish a commission to examine the failures that led up to the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Jews by Hamas.

CBS News has reached out to the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment.

On Iran, Newsom said, “I’m very angry about this war, with all due respect, you know, not because I’m angry the supreme leader is dead. Quite the contrary. I’m not naive about the last 37 years of his reign. Forty-seven years since ’79 — the revolution,” Newsom said. “But I’m also mindful that you have a president who still is inarticulate and incapable of giving us the rationale of why? Why now? What’s the endgame?”

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks with political commentator Jack Cocchiarella at an event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on March 5, 2026.

Anne Bryson

Many attendees at Newsom’s book event said that the situation in Iran is a top-of-mind issue for them, too. Some said they’re “horrified” by what is happening.

29-year-old Alicia Marr told CBS News she decided to attend Newsom’s event because of his social media response to the war with Iran.

“There was one spot left, and I decided to pick it up, and it was due to his response to the war, that it is just unacceptable, and I would agree with that,” Marr said.

While some voters like Marr are eager to hear about where potential candidates stand on foreign policy, many at Newsom’s event said they care most about how potential candidates plan to address domestic issues.

“I’m more focused on getting the middle class back on track and fighting the oligarchy, and I’m less invested in international issues,” said Anita Alden, who also attended Newsom’s event,

“I wouldn’t call myself America first, but we have so many problems at home that are my priority,” she told CBS News.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who may also be weighing another White House bid, told Fox 2 Detroit last week that she “unequivocally opposes” the Trump administration’s military action in Iran and urged Congress to take action.

“If we want to stop Donald Trump with this random decision that he has arrived at, then Congress must act, and Congress must act immediately. The American people do not want our sons and daughters to go into this unauthorized war of choice,” Harris said.

Mr. Trump has lashed out against Democrats who have pushed back on his Iran strategy, calling them “losers” last week and arguing that they would criticize any decision he made on Iran.

“If I did it, it’s no good. If I didn’t do it, they would have said the opposite, that you should have done this,” the president said.

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New Hampshire

Mass. man nabbed after allegedly driving over 100 mph in N.H.

Published

1 day ago

March 9, 2026

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Mass. man nabbed after allegedly driving over 100 mph in N.H.

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Police say the Attleboro man was driving 104 mph in a 55 mph zone on Route 202 near in Rindge, New Hampshire.

A Massachusetts man was arrested late Wednesday night after police say he was driving more than 100 mph on a New Hampshire roadway.

Officers with the Rindge Police Department stopped a vehicle shortly after 11 p.m. on Route 202 near Sears Drive in Rindge following a report of a car traveling at excessive speed, according to a statement from Chief Rachel Malynowski.

The vehicle, a 2020 Kia Stinger, was spotted traveling at 104 mph in a posted 55 mph zone, Malynowski said.

The driver, a 21-year-old man from Attleboro, was arrested and charged with reckless operation of a motor vehicle, according to police.

He is scheduled to be arraigned April 5. If convicted, the man faces a fine of at least $750, in addition to the court’s penalty assessment, and a 90-day license suspension, Malynowski said.