Administration

Harris says 2024 is ‘absolutely not’ being discussed yet with Biden

Vice President Harris in a Thursday interview said the 2024 presidential race is not even being discussed in the White House when asked a direct question about a reelection bid by President Biden. 

“You’re not discussing 2024 yet?” ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked the vice president on “Good Morning America.”

“Absolutely not,” she replied. “No.”

Speculation about 2024 has grown in recent weeks given Biden’s poor approval ratings and a disappointing outcome in the off-year elections for Democrats. Biden’s sagging ratings were seen as a drag on candidates, including in Virginia, where the party lost the governor’s race. 

Biden will also be 81 in 2024, which has led to questions since before he was inaugurated over whether he would run again. Harris is seen as the obvious successor, though her approval ratings are also not high. Some Democrats are privately questioning if Biden will run for reelection. 

When Stephanopoulos asked her if Biden has told her if he is going to seek reelection in 2024, Harris dodged by giving an outline of her day.

“What President Biden and I started our day talking about, as we normally do, is bringing in members of our intelligence community to review the presidential daily brief and talk about classified information around threats to our national security and hot spots around the world,” she said.

She said they then had a couple of other meetings “and then I went over to the Capitol because I’m the president of the Senate and broke a tie vote there. And we are focused on implementation of the bipartisan infrastructure deal,” she added.

Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to advance the nomination of Brian Nelson for under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial crimes at the Capitol on Wednesday. 

Harris also said in the interview she does not feel misused or underused in the Biden administration. 

A recent CNN report described tension between Harris and other aides in the White House. After the piece was published, the White House made a concerted effort to push back at the narrative.