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Top Democrats across the country said President Joe Biden should not run for re-election in 2024 as they expressed worries over his current leadership and age.
Nearly all 50 Democratic officials interviewed by the New York Times feared a Biden re-election campaign would not help their party against Republicans, who are expected to make sweeping victories in the coming midterms.
Democratic National Committee (DNC) member Steve Simeonidis, of Miami, said he was generally pessimistic about his party’s leadership and called on Biden, 79, to let someone new take over in 2024.
‘To say our country was on the right track would flagrantly depart from reality,’ Simeonidis told the Times. ‘[Biden] should announce his intent not to seek re-election in ’24 right after the midterms.’
Shelia Huggins, another member of the DNC from Durham, North Carolina, was more critical of the president.
‘Democrats need fresh, bold leadership for the 2024 presidential race,’ she said. ‘That can’t be Biden.’
Nearly all 50 Democratic officials interviewed by the New York Times said Joe Biden (pictured on Friday) should not run for president
DNC members Steve Simeonidis (left), of Miami, and Shelia Huggins (right), of North Carolina, were pessimistic of Biden’s leadership and called on younger Democrats to take reign
Compounding the president’s troubles were soaring gas prices, which saw a dramatic uptick after Biden was elected president in November 2020
One of the president’s biggest woe is rising inflation, which hit 8.6 percent in May
CONCERNS OVER GAFFE-PRONE JOE’S HEALTH
BROKEN FOOT PLAYING WITH DOG AND TUMBLE BOARDING AIR FORCE ONE
Biden was walking in a boot after breaking his foot while playing with his dog, Major, in November 2020.
His physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, said in a statement at the time that he would likely be required to wear a bootie for several weeks.
However, Biden’s recovery appeared to go well, and he was soon spotted in public without the boot on.
The president was then filmed falling three times as he boarded Air Force One on March 2021.
The president’s fall was blamed on a ‘breeze,’ and he did not suffer any injuries.
He took another tumble boarding Air Force One last month.
HIGH CHOLESTEROL AND IRREGULAR HEARTBEAT
In December 2019, there were concerns over Biden’s health, in particular leading up to the 2020 election.
He released medical records which showed he has an irregular heartbeat and high cholesterol, but which described him as a ‘healthy, vigorous 77-year-old.’
Some experts questioned whether or not he was as healthy as he claimed.
SLIPS OF THE TONGUE AND FEARS OF MEMORY LOSS
Days before the election, he became confused when introducing his granddaughter Natalie at an event, and instead referred to her as ‘my son Beau’.
Beau Biden died in 2015 after battling a brain tumor.
He has mistakenly referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as ‘president’ and incorrectly told US troops that they were going to Ukraine.
Last month, the president was pictured extending his hand for a handshake from nobody during a speech in North Carolina where he wandered off stage.
While grateful for Biden’s victory against Donald Trump in 2020, many of the interviewed Democrats, many of whom asked to remain anonymous, said the troubles facing the president’s administration have dealt a major blow to his party.
Among the big ticket issues are record-high inflation that’s the heighest its ever been in more than 40 years, surging gas prices – which hit $5 per gallon on Saturday, the lingering pandemic and the possible end of federal abortion rights as the Supreme Court is poised to end Roe V. Wade in the coming weeks.
Also stinging was Biden’s failure to pass his $1.8 trillion Build Back Better agenda and voting rights expansion, which faced opposition from his own party, and the chaotic U.S. military exit from Afghanistan last summer.
While David Axelrod, the chief strategist for Barack Obama’s winning campaigns, argued that Biden has done well given the unprecedented challenges he’s faced as a result of the pandemic, he fears the president’s age might be a deciding factor on whether or not he can attract enough support to launch a successful re-election bid.
‘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,’ Axelrod told the Times.
Biden became the oldest American to be inaugurated as president when he was sworn in at age 78 in 2021.
The campaign strategist said that while many would be able to tout the victories Biden has achieved to brighten his image, the president lacks the ability to boast believably.
‘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’s repeated gaffe’s – where he’s tripped on stairs, appeared to be talking to no one and mis-referenced global leaders – aren’t helping his image either.
The question remains of who would be poised to replace Biden in this highly polarizing political climate as Democrats fear Trump might launch his own re-election campaign for 2024.
Few of those interviewed by the Times said they did not expect Vice President Kamala Harris to run.
Harris has faced her own failures in office, primarily through the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border despite her being appointed as the border czar.
Many of the interviewed Democrats instead touted U.S. senators Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Corey Booker, as well as U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Texas gubernatorial hopeful Beto O’Rourke.
Faiz Shakir, Bernie Sanders’ campaign manager in 2020, said it would be best for a younger Democrat to run.
Shakir told the Times that while he believed Biden could beat Trump in a 2024 rematch, the outcome could be different if Republicans instead nominate a rising star in their party, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
‘If it’s DeSantis or somebody, I think that would be a different kind of a challenge,’ Mr. Shakir said.
Howard Dean, the former DNC chairman, echoed the need for a fresh face and revealed he had coted for the 40-year-old Buttigieg in the 2020 primary.
‘The generation after me is just a complete trash heap,’ Dean told the Times.
Howard Dean, the former DNC chairman, said Democrats were desperate for younger candidates and called the generation that followed him a ‘complete trash heap’
Biden’s approval ratings in his first 496 days in office fellow below Trump’s during the same point in the Republican’s presidency
President Joe Biden’s approval rating is below 50 percent in every state but Hawaii
The Democrats uneasiness comes as Biden’s approval ratings continue to drop as the percentage of the population that supports him has fallen just below those who backed Trumped, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Another tracker, Civiqs, shows Biden with an approval rating below 50 percent in every US state except for Hawaii, where he’s polling at 52 percent approval.
‘He’s now lower than Trump, and he’s really twisted about it,’ someone close to the administration told NBC News.
The president is backed by 40.7 percent of Americans as of Tuesday, while 41.6 percent of voters supported Trump at this point in his term, according to FiveThirtyEight’s average of multiple recent polls.
The number is now below that of every one of his predecessors since the end of World War II. Trump’s rating had long been an exception to that benchmark.
Biden’s disapproval rating on his 496th day in office, the most current data, was also slightly above Trump’s.
An average 54.1 percent of Americans expressed their unhappiness with Biden now compared to 52.9 who disapproved of the Republican leader.
It comes as his 40.7 approval rating is now lower than Donald Trump’s was at this point in his term – by roughly one percent
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