House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday declined to say whether she thinks President Joe Biden should seek re-election in 2024.
Asked by CNN’s Daniella Diaz if the president should run again, Pelosi offered praise to Biden for defeating former President Donald Trump in 2020, but said she would not address the 2024 race.
“President Biden is the president of the United States,” Pelosi, a California Democrat, said during her weekly press conference. “He did a great service to our country. He defeated Donald Trump. Let’s not forget that.”
But then she also said: “I’m not going into politics about whether the president should run or not.”
Biden has previously said he intends to seek re-election in 2024, but said in a “60 Minutes” interview that aired this week that he has not made a “firm decision.” However, he also dismissed concerns that he shouldn’t run because of his age.
“I respect the fact that people would say, you know, ‘You’re old,’” Biden said. “But I think it relates to how much energy you have, and whether or not the job you’re doing is one consistent with what any person of any age would be able to do.”
He would be 81 years old for most of 2024, then turn 82 in November of that year.
A USA Today-Ipsos poll conducted in August found that 56% of Democratic voters would not want Biden to run again, though 60% believe that he would win if did.
Democratic lawmakers have been divided in their opinions of whether they’d support a Biden run in 2024. Some, such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, have said they would back Biden if he ran again. Others have either not made a firm commitment or have expressed they’d prefer a different candidate.
“The country would be well served by a new generation of compelling, well-prepared, dynamic Democrats to step up,” Rep. Dean Phillips, a Minnesota Democrat, said in a radio interview in July.
