Cedric Richmond on Biden 2024: ‘He's running’

Cedric Richmond, a former Biden White House official, definitively said this week that President Biden will run again in 2024 amid questions about his political longevity.

“He’s running and we’re building an infrastructure for him to run and win,” Richmond told NBC. “Right now, it’s all an early investment in 2024 while we’re helping 2022.”

Richmond, also a former congressman from Louisiana, was the director of the White House Office of Public Engagement in the Biden administration until he left in May. He is now a senior adviser for the Democratic National Committee.

Richmond's remarks come amid skepticism over whether the president will run again, especially as he’s been unable to escape questions about his age. Biden, already the oldest-ever sitting commander in chief, turns 80 this year, but the White House has insisted that he intends to run for reelection.

Biden spoke about 2024 in July, saying he wouldn’t be disappointed if there was a rematch between him and former President Trump.

The president also had been plagued by poor approval ratings but has recently seen a sizable boost. He hit a 45 percent approval number in an Associated Press-NORC poll this week, a spike of 9 percentage points from July. 

August was a big month for the president in terms of legislative wins — and the improvement in gas prices the U.S. has seen in the last several weeks.

Despite recent success, some polling still indicates that most Americans don’t want him to run for another term.

Two-thirds of voters in a recent poll said that he shouldn’t run, with nearly half citing their belief that he’s a bad president as the reason why. Another 30 percent said it’s simply because Biden, who would be 82 by the time he takes the oath of office again, is too old for the job.

That same poll found that 57 percent of voters think Trump shouldn’t run for another presidential term, despite the former president’s hints recently that he plans to do so.