Someone read the Time article the other day titled "How Biden cleared the field for a run in 2024": https://time.com/6274345/biden-2024-re-election-democratic-primary/
In early January, President Joe Biden called a cabinet meeting in the West Wing of the White House. Over the holidays, a wave of flight cancellations by Southwest Airlines had left thousands of Americans stranded at airports for days. The face of the government response on cable news had been Biden’s Transportation Secretary and one-time rival for the Democratic nomination, Pete Buttigieg, who had been one of the administration’s most visible talking heads for months. Multiple clips of Buttigieg holding his own against combative anchors had gone viral. When Biden saw Buttigieg, the President flashed his unnaturally white teeth.
“Hey, TV,” Biden tossed at Buttigieg, say two people familiar with the meeting. It was a targeted jibe. Officials in the room saw it as a good-natured reminder to Buttigieg that, while it was his job to be out in front of a bad news cycle, he was representing Biden, not himself.
The subtle moment spoke volumes about how Biden has managed to clear the field within his own party for a re-election bid that many in his party never wanted. As Biden entered the White House in 2021, insiders predicted he would hold the Oval Office for one term and then step aside. A year ago, the conventional wisdom was that Biden might run again, but that he would have to fend off serious challengers in a contested primary, including possibly figures from within his own cabinet.
That thinking has completely fallen apart. Despite a recent poll showing most voters don’t want the oldest President in American history to run for another term, none of the party’s most credible candidates are taking any steps toward a run. The two most prominent Democrats vying for President thus far—Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—are not seen by party insiders as serious threats to Biden’s glide path to the nomination.
That thinking has completely fallen apart. Despite a recent poll showing most voters don’t want the oldest President in American history to run for another term, none of the party’s most credible candidates are taking any steps toward a run. The two most prominent Democrats vying for President thus far—Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—are not seen by party insiders as serious threats to Biden’s glide path to the nomination.
“There isn’t an opening” for a Democratic challenger, says a Biden aide who tracks his polling closely. “You’re not going to challenge somebody that you can’t beat,” adds another Biden adviser. Across the country, the Democratic Party’s biggest stars have conceded that point.