President Biden said on Wednesday that an official decision on whether he will run for reelection in 2024 will be made early next year, while emphasizing that he intends to run again, after Democrats performed better than expected in midterm elections.
The White House has insisted for months that Biden intends to run again, despite concerns from some Democrats about his age and persistently low approval rating.
“I hope Jill and I get a little time to actually sneak away for a week around, between Christmas and Thanksgiving,” President Biden said at a press conference following Election Day at the White House. “My guess is it will be early next year we make that judgement,” he added.
Several lawmakers have stated their opposition to Biden seeking a second term, and a number of party luminaries, led by Vice President Kamala Harris, are seen as potential candidates if he opts out. But President Biden does not appear to be backing down.
Regardless of whether former President Donald Trump announces another White House bid, the president stressed that he is not under any pressure to announce his reelection campaign anytime soon.
Earlier this week, former President Donald Trump hinted at another presidential run when he said at a rally for Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance that he would be “making a very big announcement” on November 15th.
Former President Trump has long wanted to announce another White House bid, but advisers convinced him to wait until after the midterm elections. They were concerned that he would divert attention away from Republican campaigns and prematurely limit his political options by triggering campaign finance restrictions on candidates.
“I’m going to be making a very big announcement on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida,” said the former president, and refused to give any more details regarding the announcement, reasoning that did not wish to “detract” from the “very important, even critical” midterm election, the results of which turned out to be mixed.
The former president also shot a very clear message (Ahem! warning) at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who has emerged as a rising GOP star, to refrain from challenging the former president in the 2024 presidential elections.
“If he did run, I will tell you things about him that won’t be very flattering. I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife, who is really running his campaign. Any of that stuff is not good – you have other people that possibly will run, I guess. I don’t know if he runs. If he runs, he runs,” said the former President.
On Tuesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was re-elected to a second term after defeating Democrat Charlie Crist. DeSantis defeated Democratic challenger Charlie Crist with 59.5 percent of the vote, an increase of less than one percentage point over his 2018 victory.
President Joe Biden appeared to fan the flames of the escalating feud between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump, saying it would be entertaining to watch the two “take on each other.”
“It’ll be fun watching them take on each other,” joked the 79 year old Democrat president at a press conference.
At the press conference, President Biden noted that his party outperformed expectations, and described the results as a sigh of relief for some. Democrats won a high-profile Senate victory in Pennsylvania when John Fetterman defeated Republican Mehmet Oz. However, it was unclear whether they would retain control of the Senate, with key races in Nevada and Arizona too close to call and a potentially pivotal race in Georgia set for a run-off in December.
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