In a very likely sign of things to come, President Biden was serenaded with chants of “four more years” multiple times as he addressed a partisan audience of Democratic officials and activists gathered at a major party meeting this past weekend.
The president dropped more hints that a 2024 re-election announcement would likely be coming in the near future.
“We’re just getting started,” Biden told a boisterous crowd gathered in Philadelphia on Friday night for the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) winter meeting. “I intend to get… more done.”
The president gets another opportunity to showcase his administration’s accomplishments on Tuesday when he delivers the State of the Union address to a prime-time national audience.
HINTING AT 2024, BIDEN SAYS ‘WE’RE JUST GETTING STARTED’
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who addressed the audience ahead of the president, gave a taste of the messaging to come as their 2024 efforts will likely get underway.
“As of this month, we’ve created 12 million new jobs. We’ve created more new jobs in two years than any president did in their entire term,” Biden touted.
And Harris spotlighted that “Democrats — we are delivering. Actually, we are delivering big time” and touted that “we have momentum.”
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Biden has said for over a year that he intends to seek a second term in the White House, but he’s yet to make any formal announcements. Last week, the president smiled at a ceremony for outgoing White House chief of staff Ron Klain as the longtime Biden aide said “I look forward to being on your side when you run for president in 2024.”
Sources in the president’s political orbit have told Fox News that any announcement regarding a Biden 2024 campaign would not come until after Tuesday’s address.
One big question is when will the 80-year-old Biden — the oldest president in the nation’s history — declare he’s seeking a second term.
“I think it’s probably smarter to wait. I don’t think anyone right now is thinking of running against him,” DNC committee member from New Hampshire Billy Shaheen told Fox News.
“Time is on his side,” said Shaheen, a veteran of Democratic presidential campaigns dating back to Jimmy Carter in 1976.
BIDEN APPROVAL RATING REMAINS UNDERWATER, BELOW MOST OF HIS RECENT PREDECESSORS
Biden’s standing with Americans remains well underwater. His approval ratings sank into negative territory in the autumn of 2021 and have yet to bounce back into positive territory. But the president’s lackluster poll numbers — fueled in part by soaring inflation the past year and a half — didn’t hurt his party in November’s midterm elections, when Democrats outperformed expectations in what many pundits predicted would be a red wave election.
Now, as he appears to inch closer to announcing a re-election campaign, Democrats appear mostly united around Biden.
“Democrats had a pretty good year flying the Biden banner over their heads. This is a guy who seems fired up. He seems ready to keep it going and I see no groundswell of opposition within the Democratic Party,” DNC member Mo Elleithee told Fox News.
Elleithee predicted that Biden wouldn’t face any serious primary threat from the party’s left flank.
“I think he has done a fantastic job navigating the treacherous waters of the Democratic coalition. When you are a coalition not everyone is going to be happy all the time. And he’s done a good job of navigating those waters,” Elleithee argued.
Biden’s former boss, President Barack Obama, announced his plans to seek re-election in 2012 in an email and video to supporters on April 4, 2011. Obama’s predecessor, President George W. Bush, didn’t file for his 2004 re-election until May 16, 2003. And President Bill Clinton announced his 1996 re-election campaign in April 1995.
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“I would expect a similar timeframe for President Biden,” longtime Democratic strategist and communication Chris Moyer, a presidential campaign veteran, said. “I don’t see much difference between announcing in February or April.
Moyer argued that “building a robust war chest and attracting the best campaign talent — two reasons campaigns typically launch early — will not be a problem. He doesn’t face a serious challenge for the nomination, he’s in good standing with Democrats, and he has a strong record on which to run for re-election — historic legislative achievements, inflation coming down, and 12 million jobs created since he took office. The best thing he can do for his forthcoming campaign is continue to deliver results for the American people as President.”
Biden’s immediate predecessor in the White House, President Donald Trump, broke with precedent and filed for his re-election on the day he was inaugurated, on Jan. 20, 2017. Starting the next month, Trump began holding rallies and fundraisers for his re-election. He formally announced his 2020 campaign at a rally in Orlando, Florida, on June 18, 2019.
The DNC’s Elleithee argued that the date of the announcement is not that consequential.
“Everyone in the political media industrial complex sends far too much time parsing decisions like that. He’s made it pretty clear he intends to run. He’s been out there touting the accomplishments of his administration in a way that sounds like he’s going to run,” Elleithee said. “He’s going to go to the State of the Union and lay out the themes of the campaign that he’s probably going to run on. He’s in. When it’s official — that’s just gravy.”