- Despite less-than-stellar polling numbers
through much of his term so far, President Biden,
who is already the oldest president in US history,
is still almost assured the 2024 Democratic nomination
if he seeks it.
Currently, the president has a 42% overall approval rating.
58% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents
say they want someone other than Joe Biden for the 2024 ticket.
As the oldest person to be elected president
at 78 years old,
Biden has almost 40 years of experience in Congress.
He spent eight years as vice president
and already has three presidential
runs under his belt.
Now an octogenarian, he would be 86 years old
at the end of a second term --
something that voters and his colleagues say they worry about.
- We have been seeing a fluctuation of poll numbers
with a lot of voters saying maybe Biden shouldn't run.
There's always the question of whether he may not run.
A lot of Democrats have been thinking about that scenario,
mostly because a lot of Democrats
have been critical about his age.
They really do wonder if he will be able to serve a fully term.
Biden has been saying that age is
and should be a factor for voters
when they're weighing who to vote for for president.
- Is your age part of your own calculation
into whether to run again?
- No.
But it's legitimate for people to raise issues about my age.
It's totally legitimate to do that.
And the only thing I can say is watch me.
- Despite the passage of numerous bills like the $1.
2 trillion infrastructure package, the CHIPS Act,
and the gun safety bill,
62% of Americans think Biden has accomplished
"not very much" or "little to nothing" during his presidency
while 36% say he's accomplished
"a great deal" or "a good amount."
- We've been seeing in polling that not many people
are resonating with giving him the kudos
for passing a number of these
very big bipartisan bills in Congress.
That's something that the administration
is trying to sell.
And a future campaign would definitely have to hit
the ground running to remind voters
that Biden was able to get a number of things done.
- Democrats were able to avoid
a predicted red wave of Republican wins,
showing that, while Biden as a president may not be popular,
his agenda is.
- Biden appears to be the front runner
simply because there aren't that many people
who have declared that they are going to be
running for president in the Democratic party.
Now, that doesn't mean that if others get in we might see
Biden's poll numbers continue to fluctuate in some ways,
but it really is not the tradition,
especially among the Democratic party,
to jump in and challenge whoever the current sitting president
is if they decide to run.
But there is also this idea among Democrats
that this new generation may still be a little too young
and might need a little bit more political chops
before they can jump in.
- Candidates who have been mentioned included
Governors Gretchen Whitmer from Michigan and Gavin Newsom
of California, among others.
Former Biden opponents Bernie Sanders
and Pete Buttigieg have been rumored contenders
while Marianne Williamson
has officially entered the race for 2024.
But most predictably in the running
is Vice President Kamala Harris,
who also faces her own set of critiques from outside
and within the Democratic party.
- There have been a lot of Democrats
who have privately been saying that they're not confident
that Harris would be able to pull off a win,
especially against Trump or DeSantis,
people who are really invigorating
and energizing the Republican base.
Doesn't seem to be necessarily the case for Harris
with the Democratic base.
- But Biden's camp remains confident in his 2024 chances.
- Biden was actually one of the last Democratic candidates
to announce that he was running for president
during the 2020 election,
and even then, him and his campaign were saying
that he didn't have to jump in.
He is a known name.
People have come to understand his politics,
so he could afford waiting some time.
Advisors to the president say it really will be up to him
as to when he will announce, but it might be April,
might be sometime this spring that he fully jumps in
and starts campaigning for another term.