President Joe Biden is not running for reelection in 2024, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) claimed in an interview published over the weekend.
Maloney, who chairs the House Oversight and Reform Committee, is in the fight of her political life against Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and businessman Suraj Patel as all three seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for New York’s newly drawn 12th Congressional District. The new map, implemented by the state earlier this year, has placed numerous New York Democrats up against each other. The New York Times’s editorial board published interviews with all three candidates on Saturday after it announced its endorsement for Nadler.
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The editorial board asked each of the candidates if they believed Biden should seek a second term. All three gave wildly different answers, but Maloney’s were most notable.
“Off the record, he’s not running again,” Maloney told the paper, unaware that she could not request certain comments not be published. “Not off the record. On the record,” editorial board member Jyoti Thottam advised.
“On the record? No, he should not run again,” Maloney replied.
Maloney’s interview took place on Aug. 1, while Nadler’s was held on July 26. Both dates were before their Aug. 2 primary debate, where Maloney made headlines for saying, “I don’t believe he’s running for reelection,” after being asked for her thoughts on Biden’s political future.
Nadler declined to say at that debate if he believed Biden should run, while Patel offered an affirmative “yes” when asked the same question. Shortly after, Nadler released a statement saying he would support Biden if he launched a 2024 bid. Maloney, meanwhile, appeared on CNN to apologize to the 46th president for her comments and promise she would back him in his reelection bid — should he make one.
“Mr. President, I apologize. I want you to run. I happen to think you won’t be running, but when you run or if you run, I will be there 100%,” she said on the network.
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At another debate earlier this week, both House Democrats joined Patel in saying they’d back a second Biden term.
In Nadler’s interview, however, he dodged the question of the president seeking reelection, telling the paper: “That I can’t give a yes or no answer. I’ll simply say to that, I think the interests of the Democratic Party and the country are best served by waiting till after the midterms before we begin discussing that.”
