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Back in April, we reported on the surprising news that Joe Biden is planning to run for re-election in 2024.
Obviously, it’s the norm for incumbents to seek a second term in the White House, but Biden’s situation is complicated by a number of factors, not the least of which is the fact that he’s the oldest president in US history.
When he was elected, it was widely assumed that Biden would serve only one term, and then endorse a younger successor who would run in his stead in ’24.
Although it’s important to note that Biden never explicitly said that this was his plan.
Anyway, Biden apparently revealed his plan to run for another term during a conversation with former president Barack Obama that took place earlier this year.
And now, it seems that at least one of Obama’s top advisors thinks that’s a very, very bad idea.
Speaking with the New York Times, David Axelrod, who was the chief strategist for Barack Obama’s two presidential campaigns, cautioned that Biden might be too old to perform the basic duties of his office by the end of his second term.
“The presidency is a monstrously taxing job and the stark reality is the president would be closer to 90 than 80 at the end of a second term, and that would be a major issue,” he told the outlet.
Axelrod notes, however, that despite the claims made by his harshest critics, Biden has shown no signs of mental or physical deterioration and is currently very much up to the task of running the county.
“Biden doesn’t get the credit he deserves for steering the country through the worst of the pandemic, passing historic legislation, pulling the NATO alliance together against Russian aggression and restoring decency and decorum to the White House,” Axelrod told the Times.
“Part of the reason he doesn’t is performative. He looks his age and isn’t as agile in front of a camera as he once was, and this has fed a narrative about competence that isn’t rooted in reality.”
Biden served two terms as Obama’s vice-president before sitting out the 2016 election, only to return to politics and defeat Donald Trump in the 2020 race.
There were rumors of discord between the two longtime friends when Obama was slow to publicly endorse Biden during the 2020 primaries.
Although as many have noted, former presidents generally wait until a candidate has their party’s nomination sewn up before they make an endorsement.
Reports of tension between Obama and Biden resurfaced in 2017, when Obama returned to the White House for his first public appearance since leaving office.
“Feels good, doesn’t it?” Vice President Kamala Harris asked an enthused crowd who roared in approval of Obama’s return.
“It was a comment that simply wasn’t needed,” a source close to the situation told Radar Online.
“Peeved? Yes, I think many aides to Biden were,” the insider added.
“That the Vice-President would undercut the credibility of President Biden with the suggestion that it feels good to have him back in the most powerful place in the United States truly does beggar belief. She was fawning over him.”
Conversely, aides to Obama anonymously mocked Biden as “an elderly uncle at Thanksgiving, [who] would launch into extended monologues that everyone had heard before.”
The alleged rift between Obama and Biden could prove to be of historic consequence.
Insiders say that if Biden is intent on seeking a second term, Obama might be the only one who can talk him out of it — but only if the two of them are on good terms.
We’ll have further updates on this developing story as new information becomes available.
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