Yes, Joe Biden has a major classified documents scandal he has to worry about. However, America must ask the question if he is too old to be president considering the stresses of the job and how much it demands of anyone.
Should President Joe Biden decide to run for a second term in the White House in 2024, he’ll be 82 years old by the time Inauguration Day comes around.
Already the oldest U.S. president in history, Biden has faced extensive criticism over the last two years – mainly from the conservative press, that is – over his cognitive health.
Despite generally supportive coverage for the president from legacy media outlets, most of which refuse to cover his obvious mental decline, difficulty completing sentences, and overall forgetfulness, even democrats are worried about his ability to effectively govern.
According to an Issue & Insights/TIPP Poll, taken in early October, almost two-thirds (64%) of all voters said that they have concerns about the president’s health.
The same poll found that a majority of Democrats (52%) believe that the president’s cognitive health is in decline. The poll found that the percentage of Democrats concerned about Biden’s health increased by 13 points in just two months.
While the Biden administration continues to put on a brave face, with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre cleaning up the president’s mistakes, the country is left wondering whether a 2024 run is really on the cards – and whether Biden should even be considering it.
What Will Joe Biden Do?
There are lots of little signs that the president is planning on running again in 2024, and then there are the words that have come out of his mouth.
Everything points to Biden running again, despite opposition from within the party.
During a White House state dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron just weeks ago, First Lady Jill Biden reportedly told guests that she and her husband are ready for his re-election campaign. According to two sources with knowledge of the discussion, President Macron asked the first lady whether she was ready for another campaign, to which she emphatically responded “yes.”
The French president then reportedly led the table in a toast to Biden’s 2024 campaign.
In October, the president even said that he plans to run again.
Speaking to MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart during an interview at Delaware State University, the president said the only reason he hasn’t formally said that he intends to run again is because of how campaign finance regulations work – the same reason former President Donald Trump didn’t formally announce his campaign before the midterms.
“The reason I’m not making a judgment about formally running or not running, once I make that judgment, a whole series of regulations kick in and I have to be – I treat myself as a candidate from that moment on. I have not made that formal decision, but it’s my intention – my intention to run again. And we have time to make that decision,” the president said.
It’s clear that Biden’s running – even if Democrat voters don’t want him to.
Jack Buckby is 19FortyFive’s Breaking News Editor. He is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
