Status: 12/31/2022 11:44 am
In the USA, the decisive course for the presidential election in 2024 is being set. The ruling Democrats are fiercely debating whether incumbent Biden should run again or whether it’s time for a generational change.
When Joe Biden took office as the oldest US president of all time, many thought he was an interim leader in the White House, chosen for an interim task: reconciling and uniting a deeply divided country after the turbulent Trump years. But Biden, despite his sobering approval ratings, has found a taste for design.
Vice President written off as heir to the throne
His family would like him to try again, but there is still a need for discussion, according to the political veteran. The decision will be made in the spring. This means that the original automatism – Biden makes a term and immediately builds his prominent Vice President to the natural heir to the throne – is off the table.
Kamala Harris has remained astonishingly pale over the past two years, even though she had been entrusted with the top priority of migration with a great deal of praise. “Don’t even come: you’ll be turned away at the border anyway!” With this well-known message, Harris trundled through the Central American neighboring countries – otherwise not much was happening in terms of immigration policy.
Possible challengers cancel
The situation at the border is as tense as ever, which has taken the glamor of the first hour from Biden’s ambitious deputy. From the inner Washington circle around Biden and Harris, Pete Buttigieg is still traded as a rising star. The current transport and infrastructure minister had already tried it in 2020.
“Do you still want to be president?” Buttigieg is asked. The 40-year-old is evasive: At the time he would have thought his candidacy would have been appropriate at the time. The two gubernatorial hopefuls, Gavin Newsom in California and Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan, are similarly dismissive. The latter wastes no energy thinking about anything other than her job as governor. Newsom acts similarly disinterested, sticking with the no. It is not the right moment to take this path.
A game for time
But such a moment can come at any time – if the Biden family council should come to the conclusion that the burden of the office is too high for a person well over 80 years old when Biden’s health deteriorates. Or if he doesn’t get out of the survey low of 36 percent approval rate, which has been sobering in the meantime.
“What do you want to do differently in the next two years?” asks a reporter. “Nothing,” Biden replies, “the more people understand what we’re doing for them, the more they’ll support us!” The Democrats are playing for time: As long as the incumbent does not explain himself, his potential heirs should also keep their feet still. But they are already being courted.