President Joe Biden has told his former boss, Barack Obama, that he intends to seek re-election in 2024 because he believes he is the only candidate who can beat former President Donald Trump (who is yet to officially announce his bid), according to a media report.
The Hill reported on Tuesday that two sources close to Obama and Biden said they heard conversations between the two presidents, confirming Biden’s bold ambition. According to the outlet,
“I believe he thinks he’s the only one who can beat Trump. I don’t think he thinks there’s anyone in the Democratic party who can beat Trump and that’s the biggest factor,” the source familiar with the Obama-Biden talks said.
The source also said that while Biden’s approval ratings are “faltering,” he “remains the most likely Democratic candidate to defeat Trump.” The Hill reminded readers that presumed ability was “a key part of Biden’s salesmanship to voters as he sought support for his 2020 bid — and a big reason primary voters rallied to him in South Carolina and [the] Super Tuesday states where he sealed his status as the Democratic front-runner.”
The outlet did not mention what many feel were political tricks deployed during the Democratic primaries in 2020, such as getting rid of uber-popular radical Marxist Bernie Sanders, who was dominating the race early on. The pundits suggested that Obama played a major role in securing Biden’s nomination by making his contenders snap into line behind his former VP.
One of the sources added, “[Biden] wants to run and he’s clearly letting everyone know.”
Back in 2019, four people involved in Biden’s presidential campaign told Politico that it was unlikely he would run for reelection in 2024, when he would be in his 80s. The report noted that the “elite Democratic circle” was worried about Biden’s age, while the “activist wing” of the party lacked enthusiasm about his candidacy.
In May 2020, Biden reportedly referred to himself as a “transition candidate” acting as a bridge to a younger generation of Democratic leaders.
In August 2020, however, Biden said he was “absolutely” open to the possibility of serving two terms. The statement came in response to attacks from President Trump, who pointed at Biden’s mental and physical inability to serve as the U.S. president.
Last month, Biden publicly indicated he would welcome a rematch against Trump.
In Brussels, where he attended NATO and G7 meetings, Biden said, “The next election, I’d be very fortunate if I had that same man running against me.”
A significant part of the public, however, is skeptical about Biden’s ability to run for, let alone win, a second term. A Wall Street Journal poll last month found that 52 percent of voters doubted Biden’s ability to run for reelection, compared to 29 percent who expected him to do so. Nearly a third of Democrat voters — 32 percent, said they don’t believe Biden will be looking for a second term, while 41 said that he likely will.
President Biden is becoming increasingly unpopular among the voters. According to a new Quinnipiac University poll released last week, just a third of all Americans approved of how Biden was handling his job responsibilities. A whopping 54 percent of respondents disapproved of Biden’s performance, with 43 percent saying that they “strongly” disapproved. By contrast, just 18 percent said they “strongly approved” of what the president was doing.
One particularly notable aspect of the poll was Biden’s abysmal approval rating among Hispanics, which dropped to just 26 percent, below the national average.
As for Biden’s age, he has already set the record for becoming the oldest elected president when he took office in 2021 at the age of 78. Should he win in 2024 and be sworn in again in January 2025, he would be 82. If he serves a full second term, he would be 86 when he leaves the White House.
In addition to this disadvantage, Biden’s mental decline has long been obvious even to Democratic voters.
The news of Biden allegedly planning a second term coincided with footage of the president being kept from speaking with guests by a staffer dressed as the Easter Bunny at the White House egg roll event on Monday.
In the video captured by British journalist Thomas C. Dillon, Biden could be heard trying to address a question about the August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, when the Easter Bunny intervened and redirected the president away from his constituents and the press.
Biden’s Republican critics, such as former White House physician Representative Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), have been calling on Joe Biden to undergo a cognitive test since 2020, arguing that Americans deserve to know if Joe Biden is up to the task.
“The president has some obvious cognitive issues right now,” the congressman told The New American in late February. Those issues are on display for the whole world to see, and this is a major contributing factor to the numerous failures of America at home and on the world stage, he argued.
“Do a president’s words count, or not?” posted The National Review in response to Biden’s increasingly bizarre blunders last week. “If a president keeps making declarations that bear no relationship whatsoever to actual administration policy, he is at best irrelevant.”
