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Prominent Dems Balk On Supporting Biden in 2024

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


Several prominent Democrats are dodging whether they will support President Joe Biden in 2024 as rumors fly that there’s serious turmoil between the president and Vice President Kamala Harris.

West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin declined on Sunday to endorse Biden if the president seeks a second term in 2024.

“I’m not getting into 2022 or 2024,” he said, adding that “whoever is my president, that’s my president.”

Minnesota Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips publicly said that Biden shouldn’t run again in 2024, telling a talk radio station a “dynamic,” younger Democrat would be a much stronger presidential nominee.

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Last month, New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would not commit to backing Biden in the 2024 presidential election, saying instead that “we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

This comes as reports suggest Biden’s inner circle has at least discussed the idea of replacing Harris on the 2024 ticket, assuming he runs for a second term in office.

In an explosive story from New York Magazine, titled, “There Has to Be a Backup Plan. There’s a Backup Plan, Right? Inside the 2024 soul-searching that’s happening in every corner of the Democratic Party,” author Gabriel Debenedetti discusses how Democrats are facing a reckoning.

Debenedetti notes how there seems to be a major divide between Biden and his allies on one side and Harris and her loyalists on the other.

With Trumpism re-ascendant, ambivalence about Biden’s age and political standing is fueling skepticism just as the image of his understudy, Vice-President Kamala Harris, dips even further than his. The most recent analysis from the Los Angeles Times has her net approval rating at negative 11. The result is a bizarre disconnect within the Democratic Party, with two factions talking past each other.

One group consists of Biden and his loyalists, who are convinced that while the ticket’s numbers are undeniably bleak, they’re historically unsurprising for a president and VP facing their first midterm and will surely bounce back. The second group comprises a broad swath of the Democratic elite and rank and file alike, who suspect that vectors of age, succession, and strategy have created a dynamic with no obvious parallel in recent history.

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“Biden has to run again because he desperately has to keep Trump out of the White House and defend our democracy,” as one Capitol Hill supporter puts it. “And I have no doubts Kamala Harris can’t win.”

This isn’t a random rumor being pushed, either.

Late last year, a CNN report alleged that White House insiders are painting a picture of total chaos and discontent between Biden and Harris.

“Kamala Harris is a leader but is not being put in positions to lead,” a top Democratic donor said. “[Biden] should be putting her in positions to succeed, as opposed to putting weights on her. If you did give her the ability to step up and help her lead, it would strengthen you and strengthen the party.”

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“That chatter has already reached top levels of the Biden orbit, according to one person who’s heard it,” CNN reported.

“She’s perceived to be in such a weak position that top Democrats in and outside of Washington have begun to speculate privately, asking each other why the White House has allowed her to become so hobbled in the public consciousness, at least as they see it,” the report said. “Republicans and right-wing media turned Harris into a political target from the moment she was picked for the ticket. And implicit racism and sexism have been constant.”

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