House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) declined to answer whether President Joe Biden should run for reelection in 2024 during an event for North Carolina Democratic Senate candidate Cheri Beasley on Friday.
Clyburn joined the chorus of Democratic leaders in saying that he was focused solely on the midterm elections until November and would not discuss which candidates should seek a presidential bid or who had his support until after the midterm elections.
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“I have no idea. Until this election is over, I’m not going to focus on ’24,” Clyburn said, according to the Hill.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sidestepped the same question recently, with Schumer admitting that he would support the president should he run again. But Schumer did not say whether he believed the president should run.
Clyburn is also not considering a bid for House speaker until after the November elections. He is considered a front-runner to replace Pelosi, who is expected to retire as leader at the end of the current cycle even if Democrats remain in power. Pelosi vowed in 2018 that she would only serve two more terms as speaker if Democrats reelected her.
“I have no idea until this election is over. I think it would be foolhardy for me to talk about what my future is going to be when I have no idea what the supporting cast is going to be,” Clyburn said. “If you’re in the majority, that’s one thing. If you’re in the minority, that’s another thing.”
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Republican leaders have sidestepped questions on whether former President Donald Trump should run for a second term in office, with Mike Pence claiming on Wednesday that his focus is on the midterm elections. The former vice president did tease, however, that there could be a better candidate on the ballot instead.
Neither Biden nor Trump has declared a run for 2024, but both have publicly flirted with the possibility.
