While Democrats have been publicly distancing themselves from President Biden, they ultimately will not fully abandon the Delaware Democrat until one key 2024 question has been decided, former CIA officer Buck Sexton predicted Tuesday.
Former President Trump, who is often referred to by Biden simply as "my predecessor", has been making overtures toward a potential return to the electoral stage, but has yet to make an official decision, Sexton said on "The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show."
Sexton pointed to recent opinion pieces in reliably pro-establishment or left-wing newspapers offering similar conjecture about Biden's political fitness for a 2024 reelection bid. For his part, the president has said he remains certain he is running for a second term.
"I don’t pretend to have it set-in-stone here… I don't even think Joe Biden knows what's going to happen," Sexton said.
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"[T]hey really want to see who the Republican is looking to be, as in ‘Does Trump announce? When does he announce?’" said Sexton.
Sexton predicted Democrats want to find out whether Trump will run again so that they can look at the results of subsequent polling to see if Biden is a politically advantageous candidate to help keep their party in power.
If Trump were to announce a bid and pollsters see disaffected Republicans or other voters returning to the Biden camp or giving his reelection bid a good chance, they may decide not to abandon their incumbent, he suggested.
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"[W]e’re getting to the ‘nowhere to go but up’ part of the Biden presidency in a lot of people’s minds, at least economically speaking. I believe the Democrats think that Joe Biden is their best match up against Trump," he continued.
The Democratic Party similarly believes that Biden would not be their best candidate against any other Republican with the White House's multiple crises and plummeting support, Sexton added, naming Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – who has also been floated for the presidency.
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Co-host Clay Travis predicted, if Republicans sweep the midterm elections like in 1994 or 2010, Biden's hand will ultimately be forced by February, at which point, after some intraparty debate, he will announce his intention to retire.
Two top national Democrats, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, have been touted as potential Biden successors if he bows out of the race.
Pritzker, a Hyatt Hotels heir, recently spoke out against DeSantis at a Democratic event in Florida, while Newsom visited the White House while Biden was overseas.
At recent rallies in Georgia and Arizona, Trump made cryptic comments suggesting a 2024 run, but has never formally declared such.
"Do I go before or after [the midterms]," Trump asked one crowd, while suggesting to another he "just may have to do it again."
"If I announced that I was not going to run for office, the persecution of Donald Trump would immediately stop," he said at a recent conservative student conference in Tampa. "But that's what they want me to do -- And you know what? There's no chance I do that."
