President Joe Biden told Rev. Al Sharpton that he would run for reelection in 2024, according to an account of a private conversation that Sharpton relayed to his aides later that day.
Biden’s comments came at the end of a meeting with civil rights leaders, including Sharpton, at the White House on Sept. 2, an official at Sharpton’s National Action Network recounted to NBC News. As the two posed for a photograph together in the White House Roosevelt Room, Biden told Sharpton, “I’m going to do it again.”
While Biden and his advisers have said that he expects to run for president again in 2024, they have stopped short of saying so unequivocally, in part, to avoid triggering campaign finance laws. The president’s private comments reveal a willingness to speak more definitively about his intentions.
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Speculation over Biden’s prospects in 2024 has quieted in recent weeks as polls show the president scoring slightly higher job approval with voters.
Biden, who will turn 80 after the midterm elections, has faced increasing questions about his intentions for a second term.
During a rare sit-down interview last month, Biden told 60 Minutes that he would wait until after November to decide.
“It’s much too early to make that kind of decision,” Biden said. “What I’m doing is I’m doing my job. I’m gonna do that job and, within the time frame that makes sense after this next election cycle here, going into next year, make a judgment on what to do.”
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Biden explained that while he expected to seek reelection, “it’s just an intention.”
“Look, my intention, as I said to begin with, is that I would run again. But it’s just an intention. But is it a firm decision that I run again? That remains to be seen,” he added.
