United States President Joe Biden is expected to formally announce the launch of his presidential re-election campaign next week, according to multiple reports.
As Joe Biden prepares to launch his re-election bid, a new poll shows that about half of Democrats want him to run again, but more than 80 percent said they would still back the US president against a Republican rival in the general elections in 2024.
The poll released on Friday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed that 26 percent of Americans overall – including 47 percent of Democrats – want to see Biden seek a second term.
Biden’s candidacy appears to be gaining support among Democrats. A January poll showed 37 percent of Democratic respondents said they would like him to run.
The President has long said that he intends to run for re-election, and first lady Jill Biden said in February that her husband would seek a second term.
The first lady reportedly began preparations for her husband’s run in September of last year, along with White House advisers Anita Dunn, Mike Donilon and Jen O’Malley Dillon.
The timing of when to announce Biden’s 2024 run has reportedly been a source of debate among his inner circle.
One source familiar with the planning tells CBS News that the Biden team is aiming to release the reelection announcement video on Tuesday, April 25, but Biden has not yet officially signed off on the timing.
The president is going to Camp David with staff and family this weekend, where presumably this will be a major topic of conversation.
Tuesday is the most likely date because it marks the anniversary of the day he announced his last presidential bid, April 25, 2019, also by video. But a party operative cautioned that the date and format of the announcement “could change.”
“This has been a rolling piece of ice for a few days,” the operative added, emphasizing the fluidity of such an announcement.
The video is in production, according to a senior Democratic source who was briefed on it a few hours ago. The president has also not yet signed off on the video, the source said.
The Washington Post first reported the latest iteration of the president’s campaign plans, which have been the subject of great debate at the White House among his closest aides and across the Democratic Party for several months.
White House officials declined to confirm the report.
The President is also hosting major campaign bundlers in Washington next week, with an event including the president on Friday and continuing during the daytime on Saturday.
Top administration officials, including some Cabinet secretaries would brief donors, according to multiple Democrats familiar with the plans.
One of the Democrats said they were invited by way of a phone call — no written invitation is being circulated in order to keep details of the gathering more discreet.
The retreat coincides with the weekend of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, when many top party donors from New York and the West Coast are already scheduled to be in town for various events and the dinner itself.
Should he win the presidency, Mr. Biden, now 80, would be 82 years of age at the beginning of a second term and 86 by the end of it. He is already the oldest man ever to win the presidency.
Other longshot Democratic candidates are the self-help guru Marianne Williamson and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy, nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy.
Former President Trump, now 76, was the first candidate to declare a 2024 White House bid. Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is also running, as is former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
Other Republicans including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Scott have not yet announced whether they will run.
