Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D), a progressive Congresswoman out of New York, has taken to dodging and skirting around any questions about whether or not she will put her official support behind the re-election of President Joe Biden for the campaign process for the 2024 term.
While taking part in a segment of CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday morning with Dana Bash, AOC skirted around the question concerning whether or not she will be backing Biden if he chooses to run for a second term as president, claiming that she was more focused on assisting the Democratic Party with the holding of its control over the House with its very slim majority.
“I just want to ask about President Biden,” questioned Bash. “He is saying he’s going to run again in 2024. Will you support him?”
“You know, if the president chooses to run again in 2024, I mean, first of all, I’m focused on winning this majority right now,” shot back AOC while laughing. “And preserving a majority this year in 2022. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. But I think if the president has a vision, then that’s something we’re all certainly willing to entertain and examine when the time comes.”
“That’s not a yes,” Stated Bash flatly.
“Yeah, you know, I think we should endorse…when we get to it,” AOC answered. “But I believe that the president has been doing a very good job so far. And, you know, should he run again, I think that I — you know, I think it’s — we’ll take a look at it,” she went on, continuing to laugh. “But right now we need to focus on winning a majority instead of a presidential election.”
"[Biden] is saying he's gonna run again in 2024. Will you support him?"
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: "We'll take a look at it. Ha ha ha." pic.twitter.com/ztJJe55vJv
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 12, 2022
This entirely non-committal answer from AOC takes place just a single day in the wake of the breaking of a report from the New York Times that seemed to suggest that many Democrats are being very non-committal when it comes to the backing Biden if attempts to try and run again for a second term. Most of the top Democrats, and the Democratic voters, are quite anxious that the approval ratings for Biden, which have fallen well under 40% this past week in RealClear Politic’s average of polls, as well as the face that he’ll be hitting the age of 82 by the end of the first term, could end up being a liability for any reelection campaign.
Additionally, Biden has stated, both in public and in private, that he still has an interest in running for office again. One source stated to The Hill back in April that Biden has stated to former President Obama that he is going to be running.