Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) on Monday would not say if she wants President Biden to run for a second term in the White House, refusing to answer the question during an interview at her campaign office in St. Louis.
Asked by KSDK News in Missouri if she would like Biden to vie for another four years as president, an aide interjected to say that the congresswoman had to go.
Pressed on the question, however, the Missouri Democrat said she did not want to respond.
“I don’t want to answer that question because we have not, that’s not, yeah, I don’t want to answer that question,” Bush said.
“I mean, he’s the president, and he has the right to run for a second term, absolutely, but I don’t want to, I’d rather you not do that, ask that question,” she added.
The aide then jumped in, noting that the congresswoman had “two minutes to get into the car.” According to KSDK, she had another public event on her schedule following the interview.
Bush’s comments come amid a storm of speculation regarding whether Biden, now 79, will seek a second term as president in 2024. Biden has said he intends to run for another four years if he is in good health, but as his approval numbers continue to drop, Americans appear to be less inclined to support another campaign from the president.
Some of the most damning polling for Biden came from a New York Times-Siena College survey released earlier this month, which found that 64 percent of Democratic voters want a different face at the top of the ticket in the next presidential cycle.
Of those who said they want the Democratic Party to nominate a different candidate in in the next presidential contest, 33 percent cited Biden’s age as the most important reason they would prefer someone else, while 32 percent pointed to what they thought was a poor job performance.
Biden did, however, beat former President Trump in the poll, 44 percent to 41 percent, but that was within the margin of error.
Bush is not the first lawmaker to balk at a question about a potential Biden reelection bid.
Last month, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) declined to say if she would endorse Biden should he run again in 2024, telling CNN’s “State of the Union” during an interview, “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”
After co-anchor Dana Bash noted, “That’s not a yes,” Ocasio-Cortez said, “I think we should endorse when we get to it, but I believe that the president’s been doing a very good job so far.”
“And, should he run again, I think that we’ll take a look at it,” she added.