Written by Chris Arps, co-host of the Tim Jones and Chris Arps Show and contributor at RedState
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, is it Joe Biden?
A report surfaced over the weekend that President Joe Biden has told friends and aides that he WILL seek re-election in 2024. I can tell you right now that nobody in Washington or in the political class or in political punditry believes this is true. The President gets easily confused, loses his train of thought and sometimes says things that only seem to make sense to him. The President’s handlers released this information to help stave off talk of the President being a lame-duck just 10 months into his term.
All the signs that he is in fact a lame-duck are evident. The most evident to me is all of the recent retirement announcements by veteran Democratic House members. The first surprising announcement came a couple of months ago when Rep. Karen Bass, The former Congressional Black Caucus leader, announced she was retiring from her super safe seat to run for the mayor of Los Angeles. The most recent retirement announcement was from Rep. bass’s fellow California Susan Speir. She made a name for herself by championing in the House women’s issues. All told, 10 House of Democrats have announced their intentions to retire. And just last week, the current longest-serving member in the Senate, VT Senator Patrick Leahy, is calling it quits after his term expires next year.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more Democratic retirements in the coming months – both in the senate and in the House. What is also helping to fuel talk of the President being a lame duck is all the recent speculation of who is the real power broker in the Administration; Vice President Kamala Harris or Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. His star rose of course because he was the first homosexual presidential candidate to gain traction in a presidential primary. Now that he is in control of doling out billions of dollars to repair and facilitate infrastructure projects around the nation, he could carry a lot of favor with voters by showing up at bridge opening ceremonies in important presidential states like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Florida.
Kamala on the other hand seems to be losing stature within the Adminstratuom because she can’t handle the simple tasks that have been assigned to her like sealing our open border with Mexico. Joe Biden is indeed a lame duck and it will be very interesting in the coming months and years to see the jockeying between these two high profile members of the Administration.