President Joe Biden Should 'Consider Stepping Aside' Before 2024 Election If He's 'Still Struggling'
May 23 2024, Published 2:01 p.m. ET
Political commentator and elections analyst Nate Silver thinks President Joe Biden should reconsider being in office for a second time.
“Basically Biden traded three debates after Labor Day for one debate after Labor Day and then one on CNN the cable network that will happen in the middle of June that probably everyone will forget about by the time the conventions happen in July and August,” he said on the "Risky Business" podcast with Maria Konnikova, referring to the upcoming debate against Donald Trump.
Silver brought up how it might be a wise decision for the president, 81, to hand over the reins to someone else.
“If Biden is still struggling in August he needs to consider stepping aside,” Silver wrote. “It’s not a great situation for Ds either way, but you have to do due diligence on the question. It’s an important election, obviously. It shouldn’t be taboo to talk about.”
According to a recent New York Times/Siena College survey and a Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll found Trump leading Biden in most swing states.
As OK! previously reported, Biden's mental fitness has been called into question over the past few months.
Biden left people puzzled when he appeared to claim that Barack Obama had been POTUS during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"When I was vice president, things were kind of bad during the pandemic," he said while speaking at a NAACP campaign event in Michigan on Sunday, May 19. "And, what happened was Barack said to me: 'Go to Detroit — help fix it.'"
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Of course, people couldn't help but make fun of Biden.
One person wrote, "This dementia patient has the nuclear codes," while another said, "I cannot believe this is who the democrats have selected to be their primary in the upcoming election."
A third person quipped, "He is so lost. He’s an embarrassment."
VP Kamala Harris said she would step up to the plate should something happen to Biden.
“I am ready to serve. There’s no question about that,” Harris replied, adding that everyone who sees her on the job “walks away fully aware of my capacity to lead.”
Harris also spoke about Biden being all there with Katie Couric on her podcast.
"The age thing, voters are concerned. According to almost every poll, that is an issue. And I was curious to get your take on this – four years ago, I think it was a rally in Detroit, and then-candidate Biden was at a rally with you, Cory Booker and Gretchen Whitmer…He says, ‘Look, I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else. There's an entire generation of leaders you saw stand behind me. They are the future of the country.’ And I wondered, when you heard that, if you thought that was a four-year bridge or an eight-year bridge?” Couric asked Harris.
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“I want to get to the heart of what I think you're raising, which you have said is his age. So let's talk about that. I spend a lot of time with Joe Biden, be it in the Oval Office or the Situation Room. And I can tell you, this is someone who is tireless in terms of working on behalf of the American people…And it is because of all of that that we have been able to pass transformational work, bipartisan work. When we've been able to do it, a large part of it is because Joe Biden – I've watched him – sits in that Oval Office with the leaders on the two sides and helps people figure out that compromise is actually a good thing and solutions are a good thing. I've been in the Oval Office when heads of state from around the world, in particular our allies, call up Joe Biden and ask for his advice, and he gives it," the politician said.