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…

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.