Speaking to supporters during a fundraising event on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden told the crowd that he was not sure if he would be running for reelection if former President Donald Trump had decided against running.
Biden and his surrogates have consistently tried to paint Trump as an existential threat to Democracy if he returns to the White House, an accusation reiterated by Biden during the speech. “Trump’s not even hiding the ball anymore,” Biden warned. “He’s telling us what he’s going to do. He’s making no bones about it.”
“If Trump wasn't running, I'm not sure I'd be running. But we cannot let him win for the sake of the country,” Biden said at the event, which took place at a private home outside of Boston, Massachusetts.
Biden, 81, announced his reelection campaign in April of this year and the White House has consistently brushed off concerns by voters about whether he has enough mental and physical stamina to run another campaign. Additionally, nearly 80% of Americans said Joe Biden is too old to serve another term as President, including a whopping 69% of Democrats.
A rematch between Trump and Biden is looking more likely every day. Trump holds a commanding lead in the Republican primary and the Democrats have seemingly anointed Biden without a primary, declining to hold debates and canceling the primary in Florida.
Neither candidate is particularly popular with voters outside of their base. According to a poll from August, 75% of Americans do not think Biden should seek reelection and 69% do not think Trump should run again.
But unlike Trump, who has remained popular with his base despite four federal indictments, Biden has seen support from his base falter, particularly in the wake of the Israel-Gaza war.
The White House and Biden himself have insisted that Biden gives the Democrats their best chance to beat Trump, though several polls have shown Trump leading nationally and in five out of six swing states Biden won in 2020.
However, when Biden was replaced with a “generic Democrat” in a recent poll, that hypothetical nominee beat Trump nationally.
The fatigue over Trump and Biden has also led to an increase in potentially viable third-party candidates. Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of assassinated presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of assassinated President John F. Kennedy, polled 24% with voters in six swing states in a three-way race between himself, Biden and Trump. Kennedy leads both candidates with voters under the age of 45, getting 32% compared to 30% for Biden and 29% for Trump, according to that poll.
Additionally, 63% of US adults said that a third party is needed in American politics.
No third party candidate has received more than 8% of the vote since 1992, when Ross Perot received 18.91% after leading in the polls earlier in the year.