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Only 5 Democrat Senators Say They Will Back Biden in 2024

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


President Joe Biden is not popular by any measure and now it appears he is not even popular within his own Party.

The Daily Caller, a conservative news website, contacted each of the 50 Democrat senators and asked them if they would support President Biden in 2024 and only five of them said yes, the news site reported.

A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader and Democratic New York Sen. Chuck Schumer responded to the Daily Caller with a one-word answer: “Yes.”

Spokespeople for Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Jack Reed of Rhode Island responded in the same way: “Yes.”

Democratic New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker’s spokesperson also said the senator would endorse Biden, noting, “Yes, Senator Booker supports President Biden for re-election should he run again in 2024.”

This weekend New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would not commit to supporting President Biden in 2024 on the CNN show “State of the Union” on Sunday.

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“I just want to ask about President Biden. He is saying he’s going to run again in 2024. Will you support him?” host Dana Bash said.

“You know, if the president chooses to run again in 2024 — I mean, first of all, I’m focused on winning this majority right now and preserving a majority this year in 2022,” the representative said.

“So we will cross that bridge when we get to it. But I think, if the president has a vision, then that’s something certainly we’re all willing to entertain and examine when the time comes,” she said.

“That’s not a yes,” the host said.

“Yes, I think we should endorse when we get to it,” the representative said. “But I believe that the president has been doing a very good job so far. And should he run again, I think that — I think it’s — we will take a look at it. But, right now, we need to focus on winning a majority, instead of a presidential election,” she said.

And she is not the only Democrat with reservations about Biden.

Top members of the Democrat Party do not want President Joe Biden on the presidential ticket in 2024 because they do not believe he can be reelected.

Republicans are expected to have massive victories in the 2022 midterms and just about all of the 50 Democrats interviewed do not believe that President Biden can help the Party keep the White House in 2024, The New York Times reported.

Democratic National Committee (DNC) member Steve Simeonidis, said that President Biden should step aside and allow someone else to take the reigns in the 2024 election.

“To say our country was on the right track would flagrantly depart from reality,” he said to The Times. “[Biden] should announce his intent not to seek re-election in ’24 right after the midterms.”

“Democrats need fresh, bold leadership for the 2024 presidential race,” Shelia Huggins, a DNC member from North Carolina said. “That can’t be Biden.”

Most top elected Democrats were reluctant to speak on the record about Mr. Biden’s future, and no one interviewed expressed any ill will toward Mr. Biden, to whom they are universally grateful for ousting Mr. Trump from office.

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But the repeated failures of his administration to pass big-ticket legislation on signature Democratic issues, as well as his halting efforts to use the bully pulpit of the White House to move public opinion, have left the president with sagging approval ratings and a party that, as much as anything, seems to feel sorry for him.

That has left Democratic leaders struggling to explain away a series of calamities for the party that all seem beyond Mr. Biden’s control: inflation rates unseen in four decades, surging gas prices, a lingering pandemic, a spate of mass shootings, a Supreme Court poised to end the federal right to an abortion, and key congressional Democrats’ refusal to muscle through the president’s Build Back Better agenda or an expansion of voting rights.

The majority of those who were interviewed expressed concerns about the president’s age, 79 right now and 82 in 2024.

“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,” David Axelrod, former President Obama’s chief strategist for both of his campaigns, said.

“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,” he said. “And 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.”

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But some of President Biden’s supporters disagreed that he is not the correct person for the job.

“Only one person steered a transition past Trump’s lies and court challenges and insurrection to take office on Jan. 20: Joe Biden,” one of the president’s senior advisors, Anita Dunn, said.

Other Biden allies dismissed suggestions that any other Democrat would do better than him in 2024.

“This is the same hand-wringing that we heard about Barack Obama in 2010 and 2011,” Ben LaBolt, who worked on former President Obama’s campaigns, said.

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