{ Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) said Sunday he wants President Biden to stand down on his 2024 Democratic presidential primary bid to give another Democrat a shot at the White House.
Why it matters: Phillips has previously called on others to challenge Biden in the 2024 Democratic nomination but is not committing himself to running as of yet.
- “I would like to see Joe Biden, a wonderful and remarkable man, pass the torch — cement this extraordinary legacy,” Phillips said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.
- “And by the way, this is not how everybody thinks, but I do believe the majority wants to move on,” he added.
- Phillips said his views on Biden stepping down are not based on the president’s age but rather “how people feel.”
By the numbers: 56% of U.S. adults said they had an unfavorable opinion of Biden, compared to just 32% of those with favoring opinions on the president, according to a CNN poll in June.
- Prospective voters in the CNN poll also had an unfavorable view of former President Donald Trump at 59%.
- An April poll from NBC News revealed that 70% of Americans think Biden should not seek another term. Of those responses, 51% came from Democrats.
- 60% of those polled by NBC also thought Trump shouldn’t run for president again. Of those, a third identified themselves as Republican voters.
- “Joe Biden right now is down seven points in the four swing states that will decide the next election,” said Phillips, who also pointed to Biden’s historically low approval numbers.
- Phillips added that he’s not saying Biden is “not up to a second term,” but that the numbers reflect that Americans want change and a new Democratic candidate. }
Not always. Yes, usually, but definitely not always. See, for example, in the last 100 years:
Johnson in 1968 (he knew he had no chance against RFK and had alienated a lot of the base with the escalation of the war in Vietnam)
Truman in 1952 (low polling because of the war in Korea and other domestic issues)
Coolidge in 1928 (“The Presidential office takes a heavy toll of those who occupy it and those who are dear to them. While we should not refuse to spend and be spent in the service of our country, it is hazardous to attempt what we feel is beyond our strength to accomplish.”)
Granted, all three of these men served more than one full term in office because they each had taken over after the previous president had died, but each had the ability to run for an additional term and chose not to. Anyway, it is no more true that the incumbent president always runs than it is true that the VP always runs for the presidency at the conclusion of that term.