CNN host Jake Tapper and a group of panelists laughed at President Biden’s interview with Al Roker on Monday, who pressed him on whether he was planning to run for re-election in 2024.
The president said he planned on running but that he was not prepared to announce it yet. Tapper turned to the panelists and said, “what is that?”
The CNN panel laughed as he continued and added, “I plan on running, but we’re not going to announce it yet, so he’s running.”
“So what are we waiting for? I don’t even understand. He’s not going to announce it, he just announced it,” Tapper said.
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Michael LaRosa, a former special assistant to Biden, said he doesn’t need to announce until January.
“I don’t know what everybody’s waiting for. I don’t know what everybody’s talking about. I mean, I don’t think he has to announce until January. If you ask me. I would let the Republicans and the media know. You know, events just focus on the debates every month coming up and every Republican trying to out-MAGA each other until January. Trump’s December court date. There’s lots of things that he can just focus on. And he’s proven to be a successful first-term president by just focusing on legislative politics, not campaign politics,” he said.
“But why the kabuki?” Tapper asked.
Wall Street Journal reporter Catherine Lucey said that Biden’s advisers don’t see an urgency to formally announce his 2024 bid, as they’ve repeatedly told reporters that he intends to run for re-election.
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Tapper also noted that Biden was “pretty unpopular.”
“He’s unpopular, but that hasn’t stopped him before,” NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe said. “I mean they may be looking for the strongest point to make this big announcement. When can they make the biggest splash? They clearly want to be cautious about that, but yeah, I think everybody wants to know.”
Only 32% of Americans believe Biden deserves a second term in office, according to a CNN poll released on Thursday.
Sixty-seven percent said Biden doesn’t deserve to be re-elected, up from 62% late last year, according to the poll.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about the media’s access to the president on Monday.
“Is the administration trying to protect the president from our questions? Please answer that question,” one reporter asked Jean-Pierre during the daily White House press briefing after a number of other reporters questioned why Biden had no formal press conferences scheduled, including on his upcoming trip to Ireland.
“Absolutely not. Absolutely not,” Jean-Pierre replied.
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser and Andrew Murray contributed to this report.
