Biden’s generation is ceding the stage as he plots his next act
When Nancy Pelosi stepped down, she had a successor in mind. The field that follows President Biden is far less certain.
Biden is the nation’s first octogenarian president and the oldest man ever to hold the office. | Samuel Corum/Getty Images
11/23/2022 04:30 AM EST
Days after his 80th birthday, President Joe Biden gathered loved ones on Nantucket to earnestly begin family discussions about his 2024 plans.
The talks come a week after the 82-year-old House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she would be handing over her leadership role, declaring: “The hour has come for a new generation to lead.” Those words echoed Biden’s own from the presidential campaign trail where he once declared himself a “transition candidate” who would restore stability to the White House before passing the torch to younger leaders.
But that was then. Now, it increasingly appears that Biden isn’t ready to cede the stage just yet.
While there has been simmering tension within the Democratic Party about making a generational change, Biden’s fate appears to be intrinsically linked to Donald Trump, whom he defeated in 2020 and has deemed a threat to American democracy.
