A recent report claims that president Joe Biden may not be running for re-election in 2924. This has left top aides scrambling and potential Democratic presidential candidates now eyeing the position.
President Joe Biden gave his Tstae of the Union address almost two weeks ago, and many observers thought that he might announce a re-election bid. But he didn’t that day, and he still hasn’t said if he will be running again or not.
According to sources that spoke to Politico, he might not be running again at all.
Four people “familiar with the president’s thinking,” told Politico that plans to launch his 2024 reelection bid this month have been shut down.
“A final call has been pushed aside as real-world events intervene,” the sources said. “Now they are coalescing around April.”
“While the belief among nearly everyone in Biden’s orbit is that he’ll ultimately give the all-clear, his indecision has resulted in an awkward deep-freeze across the party — in which some potential presidential aspirants and scores of major donors are strategizing and even developing a Plan B while trying to remain respectful and publicly supportive of the 80-year-old president.”
A re-election campaign for Biden was previously a sure-fire thing, but now, no one is confident about that option.
Sources close to the president described him to Politico as “a kind of Hamlet on Delaware’s Christina River,” waiting as he figures out the specifics of his potential final campaign.
“An inertia has set in,” a Biden confidant told Politico. “It’s not that he won’t run, and the assumption is that he will. But nothing is decided. And it won’t be decided until it is.”
Politico reported:
Democratic Govs. JB Pritzker of Illinois, Gavin Newsom of California, and Phil Murphy of New Jersey have taken steps that could be seen as aimed at keeping the door cracked if Biden bows out — though with enough ambiguity to give them plausible deniability. Senators like Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar have been making similar moves.
After Donald Trump kicked off his 2024 campaign, there was a sense of urgency among Biden’s advisers to start planning his campaign. However, that sense of urgency is waning.
“As the limbo continues, Biden’s advisers have been taking steps to staff a campaign and align with a top super PAC. Future Forward, which has been airing TV ads in support of the president’s agenda, would likely be Biden’s primary super PAC, though other groups would have a share in the campaign’s portfolio, a person familiar with the plans said,” said the report.
According to people familiar with the conversation, Politico noted, Biden’s allies are very surprised by the fact that he only sparingly talks about re-election. He spends very little time discussing the upcoming election.
The report also noted that First Lady Jill Biden has expressed support for another run, but people wonder if the ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden could cause Biden to reconsider running in 2024.
If Biden does not run for re-election in 2024, it will be a significant political moment. It will be something that hasn’t been seen among Democrats in over 50 years. The last time something like this occurred was when Lyndon B. Johnson announced he would not seek re-election.
“Obviously, it creates doubts and problems if he waits and waits and waits,” Democratic strategist Mark Longabaugh, told Politico, adding that he still believes Biden will run and won’t wait much longer to officially declare his candidacy.
“But if he were to somehow not declare ‘til June or something, I think some people would be stomping around,” he added.
