Pretty much no one actually thinks that Joe Biden will run for reelection in 2024. He turns 80 this November and has been a few fries short of a Happy Meal™ for a long time now. Most Americans don’t expect Biden to run for reelection, and nearly two-thirds don’t want him to. Between his advanced age and his poor performance as president, there are very few reasons to expect that Biden will attempt another presidential campaign.
Of course, Joe Biden has claimed he intends to run for reelection in 2024, he even told Obama earlier this year that he plans to run. But, according to a report from the Washington Post last year, Democrat insiders are privately skeptical that Biden will. “Some Democrats take a skeptical view of any public and private signals Biden and his team send about reelection, reasoning that there is an incentive for them to project interest in a second term, regardless of his true intent, to avoid weakening his standing.”
It’s hard to imagine his standing getting any weaker, but that still makes sense. There have been a number of hints from the White House that Biden’s reelection plans are not set in stone.
When asked if Biden would endorse Kamala Harris in 2024 or 2028, then-White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki did not reiterate Biden’s public intention to seek re-election—a stunning omission on her part, especially in the wake of Biden confidant Chris Dodd casting doubt about Biden running again days earlier.
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We’ll never get a straight answer on this from the White House about Biden’s plan until after the 2022 midterms, but the evidence appears to be piling up that Joe Biden will not seek reelection in 2024.
And this is a big problem for the left. According to a new report from New York magazine, Democrats are starting to panic about the 2024 election. As awful as Joe Biden’s poll numbers are, Kamala Harris’s numbers are worse. But, recent polls show that she is nevertheless their party’s top pick for 2024 should Biden not run for reelection. There are rumors that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is being groomed for a potential run, but it’s hard to see his viability given his rather disastrous tenure in Biden’s cabinet.
“Biden has to run again, because he desperately has to keep Trump out of the White House and defend our democracy,” one Democrat told New York. “And I have no doubts Kamala Harris can’t win.”
That goes without saying, she can’t seem to open her mouth without embarrassing herself these days. And clearly, party insiders realize that if Kamala Harris runs, they’re in deep doo-doo, and they need to find an alternative candidate.
“In the past few months, though, many of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors — even as they pledge to back Biden’s reelection in earnest — have quietly started to poke around for alternatives in 2024, partly out of a sense of responsibility just in case Biden steps aside,” New York magazine’s Gabriel Debenedetti reports.
It’s probably a good idea, but it’s unlikely that any alternative will save them in 2024.