Politico reports that Joe Biden’s closest advisers are beginning to doubt that he will run for re-election.
As time passes and no decision is announced, his procrastination has resulted in an awkward deep-freeze across the party — in which some potential presidential aspirants and scores of major donors are strategizing and even developing a Plan B while trying to remain respectful and publicly supportive of the 80-year-old president.
It is believed that Democratic Governors JB Pritzker of Illinois, Gavin Newsom of California and Phil Murphy of New Jersey would declare their candidacy if Biden were to decide to bow out. Senators like Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar are in a similar position.
People directly in touch with the president have described him as a kind of Hamlet, biding his time and pondering the particulars of his final campaign. In interviews, these people relayed an impression that Washington, D.C.’s assumption that he would not pass on 2024, may have been formed prematurely.
“An inertia has set in,” one Biden confidant said. “It’s not that he won’t run, and the assumption is that he will. But nothing is decided. And it won’t be decided until it is.”
People in the know assert that there seems to be no sense of urgency, Biden advisers feel no threat of a credible primary challenge, a dynamic owed to Democrats’ better-than-expected midterms and a new early state presidential nominating calendar, handpicked by Biden. Holding off on signing campaign paperwork also allows Biden to avoid having to report a less-than-robust fundraising total for a first quarter that’s almost over.
As the limbo continues, Biden’s advisers nevertheless have been taking steps to staff a campaign and align with a top super PAC. Future Forward, which has been airing TV ads in support of the president’s agenda, would likely be Biden’s primary super PAC, though other groups would have a share in the campaign’s portfolio, a person familiar with the plans said.
To the surprise of some Biden allies, they say he has talked only sparingly about a possible campaign, three people familiar with the conversations said. His daily focus remains on the job itself. Except for the occasional phone call with an adviser to review polling, he spends little time discussing the election. While First Lady Jill Biden signaled long ago that she was on board with another run, some in the president’s orbit now wonder if the impending investigations into Hunter Biden could cause the president to second-guess a bid. Others believe it will not.
Should Biden decide to forego another run, it would amount to “a political earthquake” not seen among Democrats in more than a half century, when Lyndon B. Johnson announced that he would step aside, citing deepening “division in the American house now.”
If the President waits too long, till June for example, “There would be a lot of negative conversation … among Democratic elites, and I just think that would force them to ultimately have to make a decision,” Democratic strategist Mark Longabaugh added. “I just don’t think he can dance around until sometime in the summer.”
