Clyburn says he expects Biden to run in 2024, warns against Democratic challenger

Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said on Wednesday that he expects President Biden to run for reelection in 2024 and warned fellow Democrats against challenging him.

“I’m all in for President Biden,” Clyburn told CBS News’s Robert Costa in an interview on Wednesday. “I think he’s demonstrated in these two years … that he is deserving of reelection. And I do believe he will be reelected irrespective of who the Republicans put up.”

Clyburn, who was a key Biden ally in the 2020 election, praised him for “passing more progressive legislation than any president since Lyndon Baines Johnson.”

The South Carolina congressman also issued a warning to potential Democratic challengers, pointing to former Sen. Ted Kennedy’s primary against former President Carter in 1980. 

Carter beat Kennedy for the Democratic nomination but ultimately lost to former President Reagan in the general election — a defeat that many blamed on Kennedy’s challenge.

“The history is very clear on what happens when you challenge a sitting president like this,” Clyburn said.

Biden has yet to officially announce his reelection campaign but has repeatedly suggested that he intends to run again.

Former President Trump, on the other hand, took the unorthodox approach of launching his 2024 campaign particularly early, just one week after the midterm elections. Trump is set to hold his first major campaign event of the year on Jan. 28 in South Carolina.