Nearly every time President Joe Biden appears in public these days, he fuels the chatter: Will aging Joe bow out of the 2024 race? Will he be forced to step aside?
In the latest incident, former president Barack Obama was seen on Saturday reaching for Biden’s hand and seemingly guiding the 81-year-old Commander-in-Chief off the stage at a Los Angeles fundraiser.
And that came after Biden stood motionless and stared blankly for a full minute at a Juneteenth celebration at the White House on Monday, as others sang and danced around him. Eventually, Philonise Floyd, brother of the late George Floyd, noticed Biden’s concerning pause and wrapped his arm around him to help.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates is denying that Biden froze in the viral video, calling it a ‘cheap fake memo’ being spewed by the media.
But it seems no matter how much cold water the Biden campaign or Democratic Party throw on this raging fire of speculation, Americans will not be put off the Great Joe Biden Replacement Theory.
It’s the idea that somehow, some way the President will be swapped out as the Democratic Party’s candidate ahead of the 2024 election.
‘Dropping out would be a big risk. But there’s some threshold below which continuing to run is a bigger risk,’ polling guru Nate Silver wrote on social media last week. ‘Are we there yet? I don’t know. But it’s more than fair to ask.’