Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) speculated that if Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) were to run for president on a third-party ticket, he would effectively "elect Donald Trump."
Romney's comments come as Manchin continues to tease a possible third-party run with the centrist No Labels group. This week, he spoke at a town hall in New Hampshire with No Labels, though he declined to give a definite answer as to whether he would run. If he does decide to run, Romney believes it will hand Trump the presidency.
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"The No Labels effort would elect Donald Trump," Romney told reporters. "I asked my chief strategist: ‘What would a candidate have to be like in order to draw [voters] from Donald Trump as opposed to drawing from Joe Biden?’ He said it would have to be someone to the right of Donald Trump.
"And a poll would prove it," he added. "By the way, we do all this talking. Just run a poll. Run a poll: Biden versus Trump. Then run the same poll: Biden, Trump, Manchin — and see who is affected. I know the answer."
Romney has been one of the former president's most outspoken Republican critics and earned his ire on numerous occasions.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) largely agreed with Romney's assessment, but warned it is hard to predict the dynamics of a third-party run.
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“My guess is [Manchin] is probably moderate to liberal on social issues, maybe a little more fiscally conservative than many Democrats," he said. "Are there some Democrats who would go for that? Maybe — and the fact that he is a Democrat maybe pulls more [voters.]”