The prospect of President Joe Biden running again in 2024 is being increasingly stymied by senior establishment members of the Democratic Party lining up against him, a report Wednesday details.
AP outlines Reps. Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, two establishment liberals who chair powerful committees and are competing for a Manhattan-area House seat, declined to back the president when asked in a televised debate whether the incumbent should run again.
The two are embroiled in a personal fight for political survival due to redistricting and neither see Biden as capable of helping their efforts.
Nadler, who chairs the House Judiciary committee, said: “Too early to say. Doesn’t serve the purpose of the Democratic Party to, to deal with that until after the midterms.”
Maloney, who chairs the Oversight committee, said, “I don’t believe he’s running for reelection.”
The AP report goes on to outline they are not alone.
West Virginia moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin has also declined to endorse the president for a second term, saying on Sunday he wouldn’t get into it.
Elsewhere, left wing favorite Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is even being touted as the future over 79-year-old Biden:
Minnesota Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips said in a recent radio interview he didn’t believe Biden should run again, adding “the country would be well-served by a new generation of compelling, well-prepared, dynamic Democrats who step up.”
Biden has said he plans to seek reelection. But as the oldest person to have ever assumed the presidency, he has faced persistent questions about whether he will be fit and ready for another race.
Establishment media outlets certainly oppose any Biden bid for reelection.
The New York Times alone has published six articles in six weeks to derail Biden’s reelection bid. New York Magazine’s Ed Kilgore last month wrote a piece titled “Are Democrats Stuck With Joe Biden in 2024?” which slammed the president for not yielding:
If things go as badly as expected for Democrats on November 8, many in the party will be quietly and not so quietly urging the 46th president to retire at the end of his term. But if he stubbornly refuses to pack it in, what then? Are Democrats stuck with Biden-Harris ’24 anyway? Strange to say, but they might be.
Polling shows Biden at odds with his senior leadership and its voter support base.
Only 26 percent of Democrat voters support Biden’s possible return, while 64 percent of Democrat voters prefer a Biden substitute, according to the Times.
Last month Rep. Angie Craig told MinnPost Democrats “need new leaders in Washington up and down the ballot” when asked if she would support Biden if he runs.