President Joe Biden may not make it to the start line for the 2024 election race as criticism over foreign policy dealings and the economy begin to appear insurmountable obstacles to his hopes for a return to the White House.
So says Cornel West, who gave that grim assessment in an interview with Politico. “I’m not even sure whether I’ll be running against Biden,” the independent presidential candidate told the outlet.
“Biden — I think he’s going to have an LBJ moment [and] pull back.”
Former President Johnson did not seek reelection on March 31, 1968, pulling out just months before the election, amid concerns over his health and criticism of the Vietnam War.
West, 70, believes history just might repeat with Biden as polling already shows his lacklustre impact on potential voters – both outside his own party and within.
Nightmare polling for Biden. https://t.co/8UBRWcREjk
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) October 26, 2023
“I’m just saying that I’m open to those possibilities, given the fluidity of the situation. He’s running out of gas.”
The left-wing academic used the interview to air his belief the real race for him is against some Democrats who haven’t declared their candidacy for the White House — Govs. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) and Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.) respectively.
West also downplayed Democrat concerns he could be a spoiler to Biden’s reelection, as Breitbart News reported.
Cornel West holds a banner in support of the Palestinian people as thousands march through downtown Los Angeles on October 28, 2023. (DAVID SWANSON/AFP via Getty Images)
“There might be slices of people ‘if I didn’t vote for West, I would have voted for Biden,’” he said. “But that’s not to me, a spoiler. If you’re in a race, and you make a case, and they vote for you, how do you become the spoiler?”
West said in June he was entering the 2024 race.
The announcement came nearly two years after he resigned from Harvard University’s Divinity School, citing “decline and decay,” and asserting he was working in “the shadow of Jim Crow,” which “was cast in its new glittering form expressed in the language of superficial diversity.”
Follow Simon Kent on Twitter: Follow @SunSimonKent or e-mail to: skent@breitbart.com
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