US President Joe Biden confirmed that Vice President Kamala Harris would continue to be his running mate in the 2024 presidential elections. This announcement comes amid whispers in Washington D.C. media that, because of the plunging approval ratings of the president and the vice president, there could be a potential change ahead of 2024 polls; names like Pete Buttigieg were mentioned in association with this.
This is a perilous time for Biden: The nation is gripped by another disruptive surge of virus cases and inflation is at a level not seen in a generation. Biden's approval rating has fallen sharply over his first year in office, and Democrats are bracing for a potential midterm rout if he can't turn things around.
On the Senate floor, meanwhile, Democrats are on track to lose a vote to change the chamber's rules in order to pass voting reform legislation due to the opposition of Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. That will underscore the constraints on Biden's influence barely a week after he delivered an impassioned speech in Atlanta comparing opponents of the measures to segregationists and exhorting senators to action.
And just a month ago, Manchin blocked Biden's roughly $2 trillion legislation aiming to address climate change, reduce child poverty and expand the social safety net, paid for by new taxes on the wealthy. That bill, which contains much of what Biden hopes will form an enduring domestic legacy, is now on the back burner as Democrats await guidance from Biden on how to proceed.
The bill was once viewed as a catch-all home for various progressive priorities, but now Democrats are sensing the need to deliver another accomplishment to voters in the midterm year and are beginning to come to terms with a slimmed-down package that can overcome Manchin's reticence.
-Inputs from agencies
