By the time of the vote, the politician will be 81 years old, the newspaper WP notes.
U.S. President Joe Biden and representatives of his inner circle have been assuring supporters in recent days of the 79-year-old American leader’s plans to run for a second term in 2024. The Washington Post writes about this.
As the publication explains, efforts aimed at convincing supporters of the president’s desire to stay in the White House for another term are being made due to the fact that many Democrats assume that Biden may not participate in the next election, given, in particular, his age – he will be 81 by the time of voting. Another aspect is related to the downgrade – by now, about 40% of the country’s residents approve of Biden’s work as president.
“The only thing I’ve heard from him is that he plans to run again. <…> And I’m glad about that,” said Biden’s friend and former Democratic Senator
Chris Dodd. In addition, as The Washington Post notes, Biden announced his intention to participate in the elections earlier this month at a fundraising event for the Democratic Party. “What he states publicly is what he firmly believes in. <…> He won’t run if he realizes that he can’t do the job physically and emotionally,” former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who attended the event, told the publication.
However, according to the newspaper, such assurances have not stopped conversations among Democrats about whether Biden’s name will appear on the ballot in 2024. The Washington Post made this conclusion based on interviews with 28 strategists and officials of the Democratic Party. So, some of them are skeptical of such statements by the president and his aides, believing that it is beneficial for them to talk about re-election regardless of their true plans in order to prevent Biden’s position from weakening now. Others note that another election campaign may imply a much more busy schedule than the relatively quiet 2020 campaign, most of the events in which were held in a virtual format due to the pandemic.
At the same time, according to the publication, if Biden decides to participate in the presidential race, officials of the Democratic Party at the stage of the intraparty struggle for the nomination of a candidate for the election from the Democrats intend to support the incumbent head of state, and no other contenders.
Biden is expected to officially announce his decision regarding participation in the fight for the presidency after the midterm congressional elections. They will be held in November 2022.
