Democrat leaders looking to the 2024 presidential election are putting practicality ahead of their concerns about President Joe Biden's age.
Biden would be 82 at the start of a second term. However, the idea of Vice President Kamala Harris heading the party ticket, or former President Donald Trump reclaiming the nation's highest office, scares senior Democrats more.
"It's fear, plain and simple," Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., told Politico. "People are focused on self-preservation and their aspirations.
"Nobody wants to be the one to do something that would undermine the chances of a Democratic victory in 2024. Yet in quiet rooms the conversation is just the opposite — we could be at a higher risk if this path is cleared."
Phillips said he respected Biden as a person and for the job he has done, but …
"If he were 15-20 years younger it would be a no-brainer to nominate him, but considering his age, it's absurd we're not promoting competition but trying to extinguish it," Phillips told Politico.
Democrat lawmakers and governors in Washington last week for the National Governor's Association winter meeting acted in a way that supported Phillips' "quiet rooms" discussions.
Politico cited three examples:
- A senator who said few Democrat chamber colleagues want Biden to run again but that the party had to devise "an alignment of interest" with the president to get him off the "narcotic" of the office, the outlet said.
- A governor who expressed thoughts about how little campaigning Biden would be able to do.
- A House member who told the Politico reporter to turn off his phone and then said Harris wasn't an option. The lawmaker also asked the reporter about other potential candidates.
Besides Phillips, the only other Democrat lawmaker to publicly call for a new party nominee in 2024 was Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn.
"I said it, I still believe it, but if the president chooses to run again, I'll respect that decision, and I'll support him," Craig told Politico.
Biden is expected to announce officially his plans to run in April, Politico reported. His team is considering who should run the campaign and its super PAC.
The president's people also believe their man will be helped by the eventual Republican nominee and the Republican National Committee being reluctant to work with the Commission on Presidential Debates. That would reduce the chance of their octogenarian being involved in a head-to-head debate.
"We know what we have, and we know the stakes in 2024, we cannot lose," Gov. Roy Cooper, D-N.C., told Politico.
"And that was the thinking of nominating Joe Biden in 2020 to start with. It worked then, why is it not going to work now?"
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