White House insists Biden and Harris are STILL the 2024 ticket after VP said it wasn’t discussed

The White House was forced to confirm on Thursday that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will run together in 2024 after the vice president said in an interview that the two had not discussed reelection.

A slew of recent reports has assessed the prospects for other candidates if Biden decides he does not want to stand for a second term that would end after his 86th birthday.

Fresh questions emerged after the vice president claimed she did not think about whether or not the president would run again. 

‘I’ll be very honest: I don’t think about it, nor have we talked about it,’ she told the Wall Street Journal when asked if she assumed the president would run again, something Biden has already publicly said he planned to do. 

Her comments were raised during the daily briefing. Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked why Harris had said the two had not discussed it when the president himself had said he would rung again.

‘I can’t speak to a conversation that the vice president and the president have. I could only say what and reiterate what [Press Secretary Jen Psaki] and what the President has said himself: That he is planning to run for reelection in 2024.’

And does he plan to have Harris as his running mate?

‘He does,’ said Jean-Pierre. ‘There’s no change. Yes.’ 

Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had to answer questions about whether President Joe Biden still planned to run with Kamala Harris in 2024 after the vice president said in an interview that she had not discussed reelection with Biden

After weeks of negative headlines and plunging poll ratings, Kamala Harris sat down with the Wall Street Journal for an interview that was published on Thursday

After weeks of negative headlines and plunging poll ratings, Kamala Harris sat down with the Wall Street Journal for an interview that was published on Thursday

She said that she has not discussed reelection with President Biden and does not even think about whether the 79-year-old will run again in 2024

She said that she has not discussed reelection with President Biden and does not even think about whether the 79-year-old will run again in 2024

The confusion follows a series of articles profiling the likely Democratic runners in the event of Biden stepping aside.

And a growing chorus of voices is suggesting that the president should publicly announce he will not run again to give Democrats the best chance of organizing ahead of 2024.

For her part, Harris, 57, said reelection had not been discussed.

‘I’m not going to talk about our conversations, but I will tell you this without any ambiguity: We do not talk about nor have we talked about reelection, because we haven’t completed our first year and we’re in the middle of a pandemic,’ she said.

Harris has been mentioned as a possible 2024 candidate in her own right ever since she was picked for Biden’s running mate.

But her popularity has slumped in office. A series of missteps and a lack of progress in slowing the arrival of migrants at the southern border after she took on the role of tackling the root causes of migration from Central America has turned her into a punchbag for the right.

This week a Hill/Harris X poll found that only 43 percent of registered voters approved of her performance.

She insisted she and the president remained focused on leading the nation rather than thinking about the next election.

‘We’re building back up our economy, and we are re-establishing America’s role in the context of our allies and partners around the world,’ she said.

Harris gave the interview after two weeks of negative headlines that focused on reports of dysfunction in her office and the departure of key staff. 

Asked whether she was going to change the way her office was run, she said simply that she valued her team’s work.  

And she sidestepped another question about her work on migration and how, during a trip this year to Guatemala, she had told migrants: ‘Do not come.’

When asked whether she would use the same phrase, words that angered progressives, she replied that she remained focused on the root causes of migration.

Despite the controversy she leads the hypothetical 2024 primary in the absence of a Biden run. 

She wins 31 percent of Democratic support, ahead of Pete Buttigieg on 11 percent, and Elizabeth Warren tied with Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez on eight percent, according to a Morning Consult/Politico poll published on Wednesday. 

A Morning Consult/Politico poll published on Wednesday found that only 60% of registered Democrats want Biden to run again in 2024

A Morning Consult/Politico poll published on Wednesday found that only 60% of registered Democrats want Biden to run again in 2024

It also found that only 60 percent of Democrats believe Biden should stand in 2024. 

The White House has taken pains to quell any sort of speculation that Harris might succeed Biden.

Last month Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the president planned to run, telling reporters: ‘That’s his intention.’ 

Even so, Biden’s age means the question is never far away.

This week the New York Times, hardly an enemy of Biden, ran an opinion piece saying Biden needed to announce he would not stand again. 

‘He should announce, much sooner than later, that he will not run for a second term,’ wrote Bret Stephens, one of the newspaper’s conservative-leaning columnists.

‘The argument against this is that it would instantly turn him into a lame-duck president, and that’s undoubtedly true.

‘But, news flash: Right now he’s worse than a lame duck, because potential Democratic successors are prevented from making calls, finding their lanes and appealing for attention.’

Days earlier, the newspaper ran the rule over 11 possible candidates to succeed him. CNN, also not known as hotbed of Biden criticism, did the same a day later.