Democrats voice doubts about Biden in ’24

Midway through the 2022 primary season, many Democratic lawmakers and party officials are venting their frustrations with President Joe Biden’s struggle to advance the bulk of his agenda, doubting his ability to rescue the party from a predicted midterm trouncing and increasingly viewing him as an anchor that should be cut loose in 2024.

As the challenges facing the nation mount and fatigued base voters show low enthusiasm, Democrats in union meetings, the backrooms of Capitol Hill and party gatherings from coast to coast are quietly worrying about Biden’s leadership, his age and his capability to take the fight to former President Donald Trump a second time.

Interviews with nearly 50 Democratic officials, from county leaders to members of Congress, as well as with disappointed voters who backed Biden in 2020, reveal a party alarmed about Republicans’ rising strength and extraordinarily pessimistic about an immediate path forward.

“To say our country was on the right track would flagrantly depart from reality,” said Steve Simeonidis, a Democratic National Committee member from Miami. Biden, he said, “should announce his intent not to seek re-election in ’24 right after the midterms.”

Democrats’ concerns come as the opening hearing of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol made clear the stakes of a 2024 presidential election in which Trump, whose lies fueled a riot that disrupted the peaceful transfer of power, may well seek to return to the White House.

For Biden and his party, the hearings’ vivid reminder of the Trump-inspired mob violence represents perhaps the last, best chance before the midterms to break through with persuadable swing voters who have been more focused on inflation and

gas prices. If the party cannot, it may miss its final opportunity to hold Trump accountable as Biden faces a tumultuous two years of a Republican-led House obstructing and investigating him.

Universally grateful

Most top elected Democrats were reluctant to speak on the record about Biden’s future, and no one interviewed expressed any ill will toward Biden, to whom they are universally grateful for ousting Trump from office.

But the repeated failures of his administration to pass big-ticket legislation on signature Democratic issues, as well as his halting efforts to use the bully pulpit of the White House to move public opinion, have left the president with sagging approval ratings and a party that, as much as anything, seems to feel sorry for him.

That has left Democratic leaders struggling to explain away a series of calamities for the party that all seem beyond Biden’s control: inflation rates unseen in

four decades, surging gas prices, a lingering pandemic, a spate of mass shootings, a Supreme Court poised to end the federal right to an abortion, and key congressional Democrats’ refusal to muscle through the president’s Build Back Better agenda or an expansion of voting rights.

To nearly all the Democrats interviewed, the president’s age — 79 now, 82 by the time the winner of the 2024 election is inaugurated — is a deep concern about his political viability. They have watched as a commander in chief who built a reputation for gaffes has repeatedly rattled global diplomacy with unexpected remarks that were later walked back by his White House staff, and as he has sat for fewer interviews than any of his recent predecessors.

“The presidency is a monstrously taxing job and the stark reality is the president would be closer to 90 than 80 at the end of a second term, and that would be a major issue,” said David Axelrod, the chief strategist for Barack Obama’s two winning presidential

campaigns.

“Biden doesn’t get the credit he deserves for steering the country through the worst of the pandemic, passing historic legislation, pulling the NATO alliance together against Russian aggression and restoring decency and decorum to the White House,” Axelrod added. “And part of the reason he doesn’t is performative. He looks his age and isn’t as agile in front of a camera as he once was, and this has fed a narrative about competence that isn’t rooted in reality.”

Possible contenders

Biden has repeatedly said that he expects to run again in 2024. But if he does not, there is little consensus about who would lead the party.

Few Democrats interviewed expect that high-profile leaders with White House ambitions would defer to Vice President Kamala Harris, who has had a series of political hiccups of her own in office.

These Democrats mentioned a host of other figures who lost to

Biden in the 2020 primary: Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Cory Booker, D-N.J.; Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg; and Beto O’Rourke, the former congressman who is now running for Texas governor, among others.

Biden’s supporters insist he has the country on the right track, despite the obstacles.

“Only one person steered a transition past Trump’s lies and court challenges and insurrection to take office on Jan. 20: Joe Biden,” said Anita Dunn, a senior adviser to the president, citing strong jobs numbers and efforts to combat the pandemic.

Still, public polling shows that Biden is at a low point in his popularity among Democratic voters. A survey last month from the Associated Press found Biden’s approval among his fellow party members at 73 percent — the lowest point in his presidency, and nine points lower than at any point in 2021.

There is little recent public polling asking if Democrats want Biden to seek a second term, but in January just 48 percent of Democrats wanted him to run again, according to the Associated Press’ polling.

Many Democratic leaders and voters want Biden to fight harder against Republicans, while others want him to seek more compromise. Many of them are eyeing 2024 hoping for some sort of idealized nominee — somebody who isn’t Biden or Harris.

Hurting Biden the most, said Faiz Shakir, who was campaign manager for Sanders in 2020, is a perception of weakness.

Shakir circulated a memo in April stating that Sanders “has not ruled out” running in 2024 if Biden does not. In an interview, Shakir said he believed that Biden could beat Trump a second time — but that if Republicans nominate a newer face, like Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, Biden may not be the best choice.

“If it’s DeSantis or somebody, I think that would be a different kind of a challenge,” Shakir said.

Samuel Corum/New York Times A survey last month found President Joe Biden’s approval among his fellow party members at 73 percent — the lowest point in his presidency and 9 points lower than at any point in 2021.