A longtime friend of President Joe Biden cast doubt on whether he will run for reelection in 2024.
Former Sen. Chris Dodd, who helped Biden search for a running mate last year, also tamped down expectations that Vice President Kamala Harris would automatically be the presumptive nominee to replace Biden.
“I’m hoping the president runs for re-election,” Dodd said, according to a New York Times report published Friday, “but for whatever reason that might not be the case, it’s hard to believe there would be a short list without Kamala’s name on it. She’s the vice president of the United States.”
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The quote appeared at the bottom of the report, which focused on Harris’s foreign policy ventures, drawing attention for being from a high-profile Democrat and a close confidant of Biden.
“Dodd quote in here is pretty stunning to hear. Usually this kind of thing isn’t said out loud,” tweeted New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.
Dodd was in the Senate with Biden for decades until he retired from the upper chamber after the 2010 midterm elections and shifted into lobbying. Biden once called Dodd, who hailed from Connecticut, his “single best friend” in Congress. Dodd was a member of Biden’s vice presidential search committee and made headlines last summer when Politico reported that he told a donor that Harris “had no remorse” for her attacks on Biden while on the debate stage when she was running for president.
The president’s poll numbers have been sinking, although he has had some good news in recent days with an infrastructure win in Congress and a strong jobs report for October. Biden’s approval rating sunk to a new low of 38%, according to a USA Today/Suffolk University Poll released this month. The same survey found that 28% of voters approve of the job Harris is doing.
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Biden, 78, said in March he plans to run for reelection, at which time he will be in his early 80s.
“The answer is yes, my plan is to run for reelection,” he said during his first press conference since taking office. “That’s my expectation.”
