White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre danced around a negative poll Monday showing a majority of Democratic voters don’t want President Joe Biden to run for reelection in 2024.
The poll, published by ABC Monday morning, showed 56% of Democrats preferring a nominee other than Biden in 2024. That number ballooned to 75% among Democratic voters under 40.
“I’m very limited on how I can discuss any kind of elections. I will reiterate what we have said many times from here: What the president has said many times, even as recently as the 60 Minutes interview, is that he intends to run,” Jean-Pierre said when pressed on the poll during Monday’s press briefing. “The president will say, as I’m saying right now, is his focus is not on himself. His focus is on continuing to deliver for the American people.”
Jean-Pierre received follow-up questions about the poll, specifically noting that Biden “is deeply underwater when it comes to the economy,” and if the White House plans to “do anything differently” in terms of its campaign strategy both this year and ahead of 2024.
“I can’t talk about the midterms,” Jean-Pierre responded in one exchange. “What I can say is, and we talked about this, in our August memo — we are going to go out there, not just the president, the vice president, the Cabinet secretaries, you have congressional members in their district as well, and we’re going to talk about how we have delivered for the American people.”
Prior to the 60 Minutes interview, Jean-Pierre had confirmed Biden intended to run for reelection without caveats about the Hatch Act.
Though the president’s approvals ticked up across the late summer, effectively all polls still give him a negative rating, and questions remained about whether his presence on the trail would help or hurt vulnerable Democratic candidates.
You can watch Monday’s briefing in full below.
