As a host of historic challenges pile up during Joe Biden’s presidency, he faces growing discontent within his own party and questions about his electability just months before crucial midterm elections.
Historic global inflation and high gasoline prices have pushed his popularity to a low that could threaten Democrats’ chances of retaining control of Congress this fall.
Amid calls from activists for Biden to show more urgency on issues like abortion and gun reform, the White House fired back, calling those who want more action on abortion “out of the norm.”
But a large majority of Democrats in a New York Times/Siena College poll released this week — 64 percent — said they want someone other than Biden to represent them in the 2024 presidential election.
Among those Democrats, the top reason they wanted another standard-bearer was Biden’s age (33%), followed by his job (32%). Further down the list, 4% cited his ability to win and 3% cited his mental acuity.
President Joe Biden listens during a meeting with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, July 12, 2022.
Susan Walsh/AP
Age questions
At 79, Biden is the oldest president in US history, and his age is causing concern not only within his own party but elsewhere – with continued negative conservative media coverage of his perceived gaffes and persistent questions about his mental state .
Fox News hosts have consistently portrayed the president as a frail, elderly man while playing short videos they say show him confused about events, slurring words and relying on notebooks with basic instructions such as “You take your seat.” (Former President Donald Trump used similar remarks.)
Although these attacks are amplified through the biased perspective of Fox News, Biden clearly lacks the energy he had as a younger vice president and senator before, often stumbling and often stumbling over his words.
In 2018, before launching his latest presidential campaign, Biden said it was “perfectly legitimate” for voters to consider a candidate’s age and “what shape you’re in,” CNN reported at the time.
“I think it’s totally appropriate for people to look at me and say, if I run for office again, ‘Well, hell, you’re old,'” he said, according to CNN. “Well, I’m chronologically old.”
A White House official said aides “far younger” than Biden “have to struggle to keep up” with the president, who works late into the night and “never takes a day off, wherever yes it is”.
“We’re seeing him throw himself into the toughest parts of the job,” the official said, noting that Biden recently spent “hours comforting families” of victims of mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.
President Joe Biden poses for a selfie during the Congressional Picnic on the South Lawn of the White House on July 12, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Furious Biden tells ABC: ‘They want me to run’
In a heated conversation with ABC News this week, Biden defended his popularity among Democrats, noting that the same New York Times/Siena College poll showed that if he ran against former President Donald Trump in 2024, 92 percent of Democrats said , that I would vote for Biden.
And among all voters, the survey found, Biden would lead Trump by 44% to 41%.
Asked by this reporter what his message was to Democrats who don’t want him to run again, Biden said, “They want me to run.”
“Read the polls,” he replied, lighting up and changing direction. “Read the polls, Jack. You are all the same. The poll showed that 92 percent of Democrats, if I ran, would vote for me.”
That reporter pointed out that most Democrats polled actually said they wanted someone else to run.
“But 92 percent said if I did, they would vote for me,” Biden replied before walking away.
In December, the president told ABC News that he plans to run for re-election. “If I’m in the state of health that I’m in now — of good health, and I would actually run again,” he said at the time.
Vice President Kamala Harris has also made it clear she will run with him.
President Joe Biden speaks to ABC News’ Ben Gittleson as he leaves a congressional picnic on the South Lawn of the White House, July 12, 2022, in Washington.
Patrick Semansky/AP
Biden’s message: Vote
In the wake of Supreme Court setbacks on abortion rights, gun restrictions and climate change, progressive activists — and many of their allies in Congress — have been vocal in calling on Biden to take more drastic measures to protect Americans’ rights.
His message? Vote Democrat in November.
“This fall, Roe is on the ballot,” he said the day the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month. “Personal liberties are on the ballot. Privacy, liberty, equality, they’re all on the ballot.”
Although Biden has used his pulpit to speak loudly on these topics, he and his advisers insist they are hamstrung by legal limits on what they can do — especially when it comes to protecting abortion access.
His outgoing communications director, Kate Bedingfield, criticized activists who were critical of Biden’s response to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which found that women do not have a constitutional right to an abortion.
“Joe Biden’s purpose in responding to Dobbs is not to appease some activists who are consistently out of step with the Democratic mainstream,” she said in a statement to The Washington Post earlier this week, prompting backlash from of the progressives. “It’s to provide help to women who are in danger and to assemble a broad coalition to protect a woman’s right to choose now, just as he assembled such a coalition to win during the 2020 campaign.”
At a press conference in Madrid last month, a reporter asked Biden if he was the best ambassador to fight for abortion rights when his own views on abortion have evolved over the years. Many progressives want him to do more, the reporter noted.
“I’m the only president they have,” Biden responded, “and I feel extremely strongly that I’m going to do everything in my power that I can legally do in terms of executive orders, as well as push Congress and publicly.”
But he also said the “key thing” was that people should “turn up and vote”.
“Vote at the end of the year and vote, vote, vote,” Biden said. “That’s how we’ll change it.”
Governor Gavin Newsom speaks with Senator Debbie Stabenow at the U.S. Capitol July 14, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Young Democratic candidates are talking about breaking away from the party
But the New York Times/Siena College poll found that younger Democrats want a candidate other than Biden in 2024, with 94 percent of Democrats under 30 expressing that view.
One millennial Democrat running to represent the Nashville, Tennessee, district in Congress, Odessa Kelly, told ABC News that she links the fear of these young Democrats to a deeper-seated disenchantment that began before Biden took office.
As the founder of the nonprofit Stand Up Nashville, Kelly recounted handing out more than 300 boxes of food a day to people “who are still wearing their work uniforms because they’re coming in between shifts to survive another day.” Among them, she said, are elementary school staff, including junior teachers, who have requested food supplies for their families and classrooms.
“The Democratic Party always talks about helping the next generation, but I’ve noticed that people who are taking care of children are struggling paycheck to paycheck,” Kelly said.
She said economic pressures have become especially acute in Nashville during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The people of Nashville are at their limit,” she said. “I understand when people say it feels like we didn’t choose people who come from these shared experiences that we have.”
Another millennial Democrat running for Congress in Texas, Greg Cassar, told ABC News he thinks the disconnect younger voters feel stems from generational differences in how to deal with important political issues. such as climate change.
“So many Gen Z voters don’t want to just wait for things to somehow improve,” said Cassar, who currently serves on the Austin City Council. “Younger voters want action. This is the kind of energy that is so often missing from our politics.”
Both candidates support Biden — Kelly said he would “vote for Biden any day over Trump” — with some reservations. Cassar urged Biden to act more quickly to protect access to abortion.
“Texans cannot just sit back and wait for another election while they are denied health care,” he said. “The president may speak with urgency, but he needs to act with more of the same urgency to help voters of color.
Managers are pushing for action — and fueling speculation in 2024
Amid Democratic discontent with Biden, other Democrats have fueled talk of a potential 2024 election.
Biden says he will run again, but that hasn’t stopped speculation that California Gov. Gavin Newsom may have ambitions for higher office, even though he strongly said Wednesday he would support Biden’s 2024 bid.
Newsom, however, criticized Democratic leaders for not standing up more aggressively to Republicans. And this week he visited Washington, where he gave a speech in which he spoke about national issues.
And Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who traveled to New Hampshire last month to campaign for Democrats and pitch Chicago as a 2024 presidential nominating convention site — and plans to fundraise for Florida Democrats this weekend – fueled talk that he has higher aspirations. (He insisted he was focused on getting re-elected as governor.)
After a Fourth of July shooting that left seven dead in Highland Park, Illinois, Pritzker’s intense, confrontational response was widely praised.
“If you’re angry today, I’m here to tell you that you’re angry,” he said the other day. “I’m furious. I’m furious that even more innocent lives were taken by gun violence. I’m furious that their loved ones are…
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