Biden Mocks Trump Before Announcing He'll Likely Run in 2024
President Joe Biden announced he will likely seek re-election in 2024 and also mocked former President Donald Trump during his first formal solo media briefing on Thursday.
Biden opened the conference by relying on notes in deciding which reporters to call on. At one point, one of the reporters he chose asked him about the 2024 presidential election.
“Have you decided whether you are going to run for re-election in 2024? You haven’t set up a re-election campaign yet, as your predecessor had by this time,” CBS News chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes asked Biden.
My predecessor need do — my predecessor needed to. My predecessor,” Biden laughed.
“Oh, God, I miss him,” the president continued. “The answer is yes. My plan is to run for re-election. That’s my expectation.”
President Biden tells @nancycordes he plans to run for reelection in 2024 https://t.co/En0Jq7Xzd0 pic.twitter.com/Eadc5URjZ5
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 25, 2021
Biden later circled around to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, who pressed him about the next election.
Collins asked Biden if he believed he would again choose Vice President Kamala Harris as a running mate. She also asked Biden if he thought Trump would be his opponent.
“Oh, come on. I don’t even think about — I have no idea. I have no idea [if] there will be a Republican Party. Do you?” he replied.
“I know you don’t have to answer my question, but I mean, you know, do you?” Biden asked Collins.
CNN, the agency Collins represents, has lost nearly half of its prime-time audience among the key demographic of adults ages 25 to 54 since Trump left office in January.
Biden also commended Harris as a good White House partner and concluded he has every intention of seeking a second White House term. Biden would be 82 years old at the time on Inauguration Day 2025.
“If you do run, will Vice President Harris be on your ticket?” — Kaitlan Collins pic.twitter.com/8ahdJC06xF
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 25, 2021
Biden’s Thursday briefing was his first formal solo news conference with reporters. The president looked at times as if he was struggling to stay on a train of thought.
Joe Biden’s brain just malfunctioned…? pic.twitter.com/QWUBa9v8iD
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) March 25, 2021
Biden was also criticized for the perceived scripted nature of the briefing.
The president did at one point Thursday take a tough question from ABC News White House correspondent Cecilia Vega about whether his administration’s messaging has contributed to the country’s border crisis.
Biden on whether his rhetoric encourages migrants to cross the border: “The idea that I’m going to say…if an unaccompanied child ends up at the border, we’re just going to let him starve to death…no previous administration did that either, except Trump. I’m not gonna do it.” pic.twitter.com/sH2Z2gC4ZH
— Axios (@axios) March 25, 2021
Biden responded by saying that unaccompanied migrant children would not be deported and claimed, without evidence, that Trump sent them away to die of starvation.
“The idea that I’m going to say … ‘If an unaccompanied child ends up at the border, we’re just going to let them starve to death,” Biden said.
“No previous administration did that either, except Trump. I’m not going to do it.”
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