(TheConservativeNews.org) – Former Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie warned voters on Sunday that a vote for Joe Biden in the 2024 campaign could actually be a vote for Kamala Harris to eventually become president.
Biden, 80, has looked increasingly certain that he will run for the White House again.
But that leaves even some of his own supporters concerned that he would be 82 at his second inauguration and 86 by the end of a second term, increasing the chances that his VP would have to take over in the event of him becoming incapacitated.
Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, trialed the likely Republican attack line at the weekend as he said Biden’s State of the Union speech showed he was running.
‘That speech was obviously a campaign speech,’ he said on ABC’s ‘This Week.’
‘I think the real question is what’s he do with the vice president?
‘I mean, what we see continuously in those polls, is if you think the public isn’t enthusiastic about Joe Biden, they’re even less enthusiastic about Kamala Harris.
‘And with a guy who’s 82 years old, one of the key questions of the 24 race is going to be if you’re voting for Joe Biden, you may be voting for President Kamala Harris, too. And how do you feel about that?’
Last week, the New York Times reported that a string of key figures had lost hope in her turning around her weak performance as vice president and believed she could undermine Biden’s chance of victory.
Some of the backers who helped lift her to the 2024 ticket say she has failed to use her historic firsts — first female, first African-American, first Asian vice president — as a stepping stone to future leader.
And even Biden has expressed his doubts. He is quoted calling her a ‘work in progress’ in a new book by Chris Whipple, ‘The Fight of His Life.’
Christie asked whether Biden would consider replacing Harris with another candidate who could do a better job of helping him win.
‘She has the highest position in the party,’ of any black woman, Christie said. ‘But when you look at the way the public views her, there are a number of other very qualified African American women who the president could pick.’
Harris has a lower approval rating than Biden, which means she could act as a drag on his reelection chances, according to rolling averages of poll results. Data from a week ago
Harris is more unpopular than Biden. Her approval rating stands at 40.5 percent, worse than the president’s 42.8 percent, according to a rolling average maintained by politics website FiveThirtyEight.
When former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren recently told Boston Public Radio that she was enthusiastically endorsing Biden for a second term she was then asked about Harris.
Although she explained they went ‘way back,’ she said: ‘I really want to defer to what makes Biden comfortable on his team.’
Allies have warned that age factor will be in voters’ minds.
‘That will be in my opinion one of the most hard-hitting arguments against Biden,’ John Morgan, a prominent fund-raiser for Democrats, including Biden, told the New York Times.
‘It doesn’t take a genius to say, “Look, with his age, we have to really think about this.’
Her record in office, he added, did not help.
‘I can’t think of one thing she’s done except stay out of the way and stand beside him at certain ceremonies,’ he said.
