President Joe Biden reportedly wants to double down on the “threat to democracy” campaign theme after former President Donald Trump said he would not be a dictator upon returning to the White House “other than day one,” three people close to Biden told Politico.
The president reportedly worries that if Trump is elected back into the Oval Office in 2024, he would abuse his power, three people close to the president told Politico. Such a fear has caused the stakes of the presidential election to escalate in Biden’s world, the sources told Politico. While Democrats are urging the president’s reelection team to focus on issues such as abortion and topics other than the former president, Biden himself reportedly wants to focus his race on the fight for democracy, the sources close to Biden told Politico. (RELATED: Biden Campaign Silent As Trump World Openly Lobs Debate Challenge)
“The president has always believed that it was his duty to get the nation beyond Trump,” an individual who spoke with Biden about his views on Trump told Politico. “He had hoped 2020 would have done it but it didn’t. So he has to do it again.”
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a commit to caucus campaign event at the Whiskey River bar on December 02, 2023 in Ankeny, Iowa. Iowa Republicans will be the first to select their party’s nominee for president when they go to caucus on January 15, 2024. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
While attending a campaign fundraiser in Boston, Massachusetts on Tuesday, Biden revealed that he might have entered the 2024 presidential race if Trump was not running.
“If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running. But we cannot let him win,” Biden said.
The president also then dubbed Trump “the election-denier-in-chief” adding that the former president is “determined to destroy American democracy.”
The comment, the sources close to the president told Politico, are a window into Biden’s real emotions over the 2024 election. Biden has reportedly been discussing the decision to run again if Trump was running with his inner circle since 2021, the sources close to the Politico said.
“It’s coming back full circle — that in the president’s mind, this is the moral authority for the race. This is an existential threat. This is the reason he ran initially, and the reason — with Donald Trump running — he’s running again,” Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster for Biden’s campaign in 2020, told Politico.