President Joe Biden has a clear message for his 2024 critics, telling Americans who don’t want to see him run for a second term to “Watch me.”
Exit polls from Tuesday’s midterms show that Biden isn’t only struggling to win voters today—as his approval rating remains underwater, as 54 percent say they disapprove of the job he’s doing as president—but is headed toward what is shaping up to be a difficult reelection campaign.
Asked about the two-thirds of voters who said they don’t want Biden to run again, the president told NBC‘s Kristen Welker that those opinions won’t factor into his 2024 decision.
Asked by Welker what his message to those voters would be, Biden said, “Watch me.”
During the Q&A period at the White House on Wednesday, Biden reiterated his plans to run in 2024, saying that the results of Tuesday’s midterm elections were never going to impact whether he’d seek a second term.
Democrats staved off a “red wave” this week in a surprising twist that the president called “a good day for America.”
Biden said that while the decision to run for reelection would ultimately be a “family decision” that he isn’t rushing to make, “I think everybody wants me to run.” He said an official announcement could be expected early next year.
Although former President Donald Trump has not formally announced his 2024 bid, Biden’s rival has hinted that a “big announcement” would come November 15 and many have speculated Trump is gearing for a rematch with Biden.
However, the midterm losses of several Trump-back candidates, paired with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis‘ resounding success on Tuesday, has made DeSantis a 2024 favorite among GOP voters. Asked which of the two Republican heavyweights would be a tougher competitor, Biden sidestepped the question, saying, “It’ll be fun watching them take on each other.”
Trump has already warned DeSantis about running against him, telling reporters on Tuesday that if the governor did run in 2024, Trump would share “things about [DeSantis] that won’t be very flattering.”
“I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife, who is really running his campaign,” Trump said after saying he cast his ballot for DeSantis in Florida’s gubernatorial election. The former president is a Florida resident.
When Trump was asked about a hypothetical matchup against DeSantis last October, Trump predicted that he would “beat him like I would beat everyone else.”
“I think most people would drop out, I think he would drop out,” Trump told Yahoo Finance at the time.