Report: Joe Biden’s Aides Assemble 2024 ‘Advisory Board’ to Temper Division, Disarm Potential Opponents

President Joe Biden speaks during an event to thank outgoing White House chief of staff Ro
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
Wendell Husebø

President Joe Biden’s aides have reportedly begun to assemble a 2024 “national advisory board” to temper the Democrat Party’s division regarding his prospective reelection launch and to dislodge any potential serious primary threat.

Biden’s lieutenants are collecting prominent Democrats to serve on the board — intended to serve as a means to extend party alliances to reelection doubters — that will present a united Democrat Party to block any serious opposition, the Washington Post reported Friday.

“They hope to tamp down internal divisions during what could be a turbulent election, especially as many in the group are former or future presidential candidates,” the Post reported. The aides are reportedly designing the board with the responsibility to speak positively about the president once he launches his campaign. Rumors have swirled he will announce the bid in April after February’s postponement.

Those reportedly asked to join the board are some of Biden’s perceived greatest primary threats, such as Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL), and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). Potential members who are more sympathetic to Biden’s 2024 bid include Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-DE), Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D).

“Biden may be especially sensitive to the need for unity given that the Democrats’ last presidential primary was a free-for-all with more than two dozen candidates, pitting some of the party’s top figures against each other,” the Post reported. “Biden took his share of criticism; in one searing debate, then-Sen. Kamala D. Harris accused him of racial insensitivity, a rift that took some time to heal.

“The plan to create an advisory board comes as the establishment media have questioned Biden’s viability due to his age. Biden is currently the oldest president in United States history.

“Allow me to point out, as if you don’t already know this, that Biden is old. He is 80 now, will be 82 on Inauguration Day 2025, and will hit 86 if he makes it all the way through a second term,” the Atlantic’s Mark Leibovich wrote Monday, citing polls about Democrats’ distaste for Biden’s reelection campaign. “Quite obviously, Democrats today have a strong craving for someone other than the sitting president.”

Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) has also questioned Biden’s age as a factor and warned he is not the only lawmaker worried about how his age will impact the Democrats’ chances of victory.

“Nobody wants to be the one to do something that would undermine the chances of a Democratic victory in 2024,” Phillips told Politico. “Yet in quiet rooms the conversation is just the opposite — we could be at a higher risk if this path is cleared.”

Establishment media polling sites have also highlighted the dilemma. “Polling suggests that Democrats aren’t thrilled with the idea of Biden as their nominee again,” FiveThirtyEight explained:

Only 31 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said they want the party to renominate Biden, while 58 percent said they’d prefer someone else, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll from Jan. 27-Feb. 1. That lack of enthusiasm is unusual. According to historical CNN polling, majorities of Democrats wanted to renominate Bill Clinton in 1996 and Barack Obama in 2012, and a majority of Republicans wanted to renominate Trump in 2020.

Early polling of the Democratic primary contest also shows Biden getting nowhere close to majority support. For example, he received support from just 36 percent of Democratic registered voters in a Feb. 15-16 national poll from Harris/the Harvard University Center for American Political Studies, while the rest of the poll’s respondents opted for the likes of Vice President Kamala Harris, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or Sen. Bernie Sanders.

To counteract the media, first lady Jill Biden has made a number of public comments in support of her husband’s likely reelection launch. The latest came on Thursday. She told CNN that she offers a “good balance” of insight to Joe Biden.

Over the weekend, Jill Biden stated her husband will run for a second term, and only a  place and time to formally announce it remain to be decided. “How many times does he have to say it for you to believe it?” Jill Biden asked. “He says he’s not done. He’s not finished what he’s started. And that’s what’s important.”

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.

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