After President Joe Biden introduced his reelection bid final April, the overwhelming majority of Democratic leaders coalesced round his candidacy, which wasn’t shocking for an incumbent.
However Biden has one of the crucial uncommon backgrounds of any president in US historical past: He is been a fixture in Washington for greater than 50 years as a Delaware senator, vp, and now president. And if he is reelected to a second time period this fall, he’d be 82 years outdated on the time of his inauguration in January 2025 and 86 on the finish of a second time period.
Biden’s age has change into a reason for concern amongst many citizens, together with some who’re inclined to again him over former President Donald Trump. The concerns had been amplified after the particular counsel Robert Hur launched his report on the probe into Biden’s dealing with of categorised paperwork, through which no prices had been beneficial, however the president’s acuity and reminiscence had been questioned.
By all of it, Biden has defended his reelection bid, argued that his age is an asset, pushed again in opposition to the special-counsel report, and articulated why he ought to be reelected — pointing to accomplishments such because the bipartisan infrastructure invoice and the Inflation Discount Act and touting the low nationwide unemployment numbers.
What does this all imply? Biden is unlikely to depart the race, particularly as he dominated the Democratic presidential primaries and is dedicated to a rematch with Trump. However hypothesis about whether or not he’ll bow out of the competition continues to swirl.
Within the occasion that Biden does by some means bow out after profitable the overwhelming majority of the three,936 delegates wanted to safe the Democratic nomination, a brand new nominee must be chosen on the Democratic Nationwide Conference in Chicago this August. However it’d be a messy course of on condition that the primaries at the moment are accomplished.
Nearly each main Democratic governor or senator is behind the president’s reelection bid and way back dismissed the considered changing him on the poll this 12 months.
However who might be a Biden successor if such a state of affairs had been to happen?