OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden will not seek another term in the White House, a top Democrat congresswoman has said.
New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who serves as the chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, told The New York Times that Biden would not campaign again for the job in a comment she intended to be off the record.
She was asked by The Times’ Editorial Board “should Biden run again and responded by saying “Off the record, he’s not running again.”
The Times responded, “Not off the record. On the record.”
“On the record?” Maloney said. “No, he should not run again.”
Both incumbents in NY-12 throw Biden under the bus to the Times@CarolynBMaloney tries to go off the record to say he isn’t running and is rebuffed @JerryNadler says for some reason we need to wait until after primary
Fair weather Dems – @surajpatelnyc simply says yes pic.twitter.com/oRBCI7meg4
— Eric Koch (@EricDKoch) August 13, 2022
The reason this is even a question is the president’s age, 79, and his abysmal poll numbers.
This month a Gallup poll, one of the country’s top polling firms, said Biden’s sixth-quarter approval rating was the lowest for any president on record at 38 percent.
The president’s current figure is also the lowest of his presidency thus far, while his average approval over the first year-and-a-half of his term is also the lowest of any other president in the polling firm’s 74-year history, The Daily Wire reported, citing the data.
“A year ago, Biden’s honeymoon period came to an end when his approval rating dropped to 50% amid a surge in U.S. coronavirus cases. Since then, his public support has eroded after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the highest inflation in four decades, record-high gas prices, and continuing supply chain issues,” Gallup noted in a news release.
“No president elected to his first term has had a lower sixth-quarter average than Biden, although Jimmy Carter’s and Donald Trump’s ratings were only slightly better, at 42%. Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Ronald Reagan also averaged below majority approval,” the release added.
While Biden’s approval sits at 38 percent, according to Gallup, his disapproval rating is also high at 59 percent. In addition, respondents had far more negative feelings about Biden than positive, with 45 percent saying they strongly disapproved of the job he’s doing compared to only 14 percent who moderately disproved. At the same time, only 13 percent of respondents strongly approve of Biden while 25 percent only moderately approve.
Another poll showed that a whopping half of Democrat voters do not want him to campaign again for the presidency in 2024, a USA TODAY/Suffolk University’s poll said, The Daily Caller reported.
The poll showed that a mere 39% of voters approve of Biden’s performance so far, and 69% of all voters, which includes 50% of democrats, want him to run for president again in 2024.
The top alternatives for Democratic voters were Vice President Kamala Harris and Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, each of whom were the top choice of 18% of Democrats, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who reeled in 16%.
The most important issues for Democratic voters were abortion, which 27% said was their priority, and the economy, which 12% said was their top issue.
The news was also frightening for former President Donald Trump, but not to the same extent among his own base.
It showed that 68% of voters polled did not want him to run again, but only a third of Republicans felt that way about him.
A former adviser to then-President Barack Obama has become the latest Democrat to cast doubt about President Joe Biden’s political viability to be reelected in 2024.
Biden has said repeatedly that he intends to run again but increasingly, Democrats are casting doubt about his chances as his approval rating has sunk into the mid-30s in many recent polls.
That includes Obama adviser David Axelrod, who appeared on CNN Tuesday with dismal news about Biden’s re-election prospects.
In particular, Axelrod was asked about a recent poll indicating that 75 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters said they do not want Biden to run again in 2024, according to Newsweek.
Responding, the former Obama whisperer said that a “time will come when these numbers have to be accounted for, and he’s going to have to make a decision” on whether he wants to run for reelection.
“I mean, obviously, this is a very unhappy bit of data for him. I’m sure, you know, it is concerning,” Axelrod said.
“But we should point out that he’s got two and a half years before the next election, or a little less than two and a half years, so you can over—you can get overly focused on one number. But there are a series of numbers that are not good for his overall approval rating,” Axelrod added.
