An increasing amount of Democrats are trying to run far away from being asked about whether President Joe Biden should run for re-election. We're not just talking about Democratic voters who indicate as much in numerous polls, but office holders as well. As our friends at Twitchy highlighted, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) is one of the latest to do so, during a podcast with the Boston Globe published on Thursday morning.
Q: "Do you think [Biden] should run again?"
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 19, 2022
Democrat Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse: "I'm going to duck that question." pic.twitter.com/eRCekJ1FHP
Speaking of Democratic voters not wanting Biden to run again, the write-up from the Boston Globe began by referencing a poll they did with Suffolk University showing that 68.8 percent of likely general election voters in Rhode Island don't think Biden should run for a second term, including 48 percent of Democrats.
Sen. Whitehouse was asked how he would have responded if those pollsters called him, though he responded with "I’m going to duck that question, if you don’t mind." Despite how the president and those close to him have said multiple times that he plans to run for re-election, Whitehouse tried to get out of the question by saying "we don’t have any candidates yet for 2024, and I’m not picking amongst them."
Biden handily won the 2020 presidential primary in the state with 76.7 percent of the vote. Sen. Bernie Sanders of nearby Vermont came in a distant second, with 14.9 percent.
Rhode Island is not the only state where Democratic voters don't want Biden to run. Last month's release of the Granite State Poll from the University of New Hampshire found that among the 430 likely Democratic voters polled, just 31 percent of them want Biden to run again. Biden's beat out in that poll by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has 17 percent support compared to Biden's 16 percent.
National polls also indicate Democrats don't want Biden to run again. This includes a poll released last month by The New York Times/Siena College, which showed that just 26 percent of Democratic voters said the party should re-nominate him in 2024.
Embarrassingly enough, Biden focused on the completely wrong numbers when being confronted about it not long after the poll's release.
Sen. Whitehouse is not the only Democrat to find himself in hot water over such a question, either.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) has particularly found herself in trouble as she keeps flip-flopping when asked the question. The congresswoman is seeking re-election against Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) after redistricted seats pit the two incumbents against each other. Their primary is August 23, and Nadler is ahead in the polls.
Squad members Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) also doesn't want to answer the question. These are all just recent examples.
Normally friendly mainstream media outlets, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, have also speculated on other picks even as, again, Biden has maintained he's running for re-election. This is not just in the form of op-eds such outlets have published, but news articles as well.
Such chatter comes as Bloomberg just last week released a piece claiming "President Joe Biden is preparing to launch his re-election bid in the months after November’s midterm congressional elections," citing "multiple aides and allies."
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