Biden 'not sure' he'd be running if Trump was not in 2024 race
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[December 06, 2023]
By Nandita Bose and Trevor Hunnicutt
WESTON, Massachusetts/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden said on
Tuesday he may have skipped mounting a 2024 re-election bid if he were
not facing Donald Trump because the Republican poses a unique threat to
the United States.
"If Trump wasn't running, I'm not sure I'd be running," Biden said at a
fundraising event for his 2024 campaign outside of Boston. "We cannot
let him win."
Biden's striking self-assessment comes as even staunch Democratic voters
express concerns about the president's age. The Democrat turned 81 years
old last month and is already the eldest Oval Office occupant in
history.
"Somebody gave him a talking point they thought would sound good,"
Trump, who was president from 2017 to 2021, said at a Fox News town hall
on Tuesday.
Biden, seeking a second four-year term in next year's election, later
told reporters at the White House that he would not drop out of the
race.
"No, not now," Biden said when asked if he would consider stepping aside
if Trump, 77, stopped seeking his own second term. "Look, he is running,
and I have to run."
Asked if he would have run were Trump not in the race, Biden said, "I
expect so."
During his 2020 presidential campaign, Biden often mentioned that his
decision to run was due in part to then-President Trump's handling of
issues, including a 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville,
Virginia.
Now, Biden faces limited competition for his party's nomination and is
again positioning Trump as a danger to democracy itself.
Trump, who faces criminal charges over his efforts to reverse his 2020
election loss, has painted Biden as a dangerous autocrat.
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U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at a dinner hosted by the Human
Rights Campaign at the Washington Convention Center in Washington,
U.S., October 14, 2023. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno/File Photo
After considering the decision for weeks with family and close
confidants, Biden announced his re-election bid in April, coming to
the private belief that neither Vice President Kamala Harris nor any
other Democratic hopeful could beat Trump in next year's general
election, according to a former White House official who requested
anonymity to discuss the president's thinking.
The president's aides increasingly regard Trump's frontrunner status
for the Republican presidential nomination as insurmountable,
according to two of those Democrats who also declined to be named.
Biden has repeatedly made comments about Trump during a fundraising
blitz that started on Tuesday in Boston and is set to include at
least nine events before the end of the month.
"I don’t think anyone doubts our democracy is at risk again," Biden
said earlier on Tuesday.
Recent polling has shown the Republican frontrunner leading Biden in
hypothetical matchups in key swing states and on the national level.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Weston, Massachusetts, and Trevor
Hunnicutt in Washington; Additional reporting by Eric Beech; Editing
by Chris Reese, Matthew Lewis and Kim Coghill)
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