Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat turned independent, on Sunday urged President Joe Biden to end his re-election campaign and focus on the remaining months of his presidency.

“It is with a heavy heart that I have decided it is time to pass the torch to a new generation,” the West Virginia lawmaker told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Nearly three dozen Democrats in Congress have said it’s time for Biden to leave the race. Four Democratic senators — Peter Welch of Vermont, Jon Tester of Montana, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Sherrod Brown of Ohio — have said the Democratic president should end his reelection campaign against Republican Donald Trump.

Biden’s performance at the debate raised open questions about the 81-year-old’s ability to mount a compelling campaign to defeat Trump.

“I am truly concerned about the health and well-being of the president,” Manchin said on ABC’s “This Week.”

But as the president remains isolated at his Delaware beach house after being diagnosed with COVID-19, he has said he is ready to return to the campaign trail this week and counter a “dark vision” from Trump. Biden has insisted he can beat Trump in a 2020 rematch and has met with family and longtime aides as he resists efforts to oust him.

Still, Manchin said Biden should pave the way for other Democrats and spend the rest of his term as “the president he always wanted to be, able to unite the country, to bring it back together, to be able to spend perhaps all of his time solving the problems in Gaza, bringing peace to Gaza and to the Middle East. Also able to spend his time enforcing, strengthening Ukraine’s ability to defend and win their freedom, and then being able to show the rest of the world the orderly transition of power from the world’s superpower.”

He also said, “I really believe the Democratic Party needs an open process” in choosing a new nominee. Manchin said he was not trying to replace Kamala Harris, the vice president. “Healthy competition is what it’s all about,” Manchin said.

Manchin, himself a former governor, said, “I think we have a lot of talent on the bench, a lot of good people, and I have a preference for governors, because a governor can’t afford to be partisan. They can’t afford to be strictly partisan, because that hole or that bridge doesn’t have a D or an R.” He cited Governors Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania who, he said, “didn’t divide their state. They didn’t force you to pick a side and demonize the other side. They brought people together. That’s what an open process would do, I think. It would bring more people forward in a process that could bring Democrats like me back.”

However, the Democratic National Committee’s regulatory arm is moving ahead with plans for a virtual call to nominate the presidential candidate by Aug. 7, ahead of the party’s convention later that month in Chicago.

Manchin, who became an independent in May after years as a Democrat, will not seek re-election to the Senate