Is AOC playing dirty?
In a Tuesday interview with “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shrugged off questions about whether President Joe Biden should seek a second term in 2024 and whether or not she’d be stepping up as a Presidential candidate.
The interview comes on the back of doubts among Democrats that Biden, who would be close to 80 in 2024, could emerge victorious in a re-election bid. But it’s not only his age that has come into question but also his dismal approval rating that reflects voters’ frustrations with his handling of skyrocketing inflation and gas prices.
But as more doubts have been raised, Biden has also expressed his frustrations that his reelection bid is still a question despite revealing he would be up for reelection in 2024.
Pointing to this frustration, as relayed by a New York Times report, Colbert said, “You know, there’s some speculation as to whether President Biden is going to run in 2024. There’s some reports he’s a little frustrated that people keep asking, because he keeps on saying ‘yes,’ and people go, ‘Are you sure? Are you sure?'”
Colbert then pivoted to asking Ocasio-Cortez if she planned on running in 2024.
“You know, I know somebody who is going to turn 35 about a month before the election in 2024, and they represent New York’s 14th. Is that job appealing to you at all?” Colbert asked.
“I think that-” Ocasio-Cortez started her answer before Colbert interjected, “Theoretically?”
The New York progressive shook her head in an apparent ‘no’ before stating that her primary focus is protecting democracy.
“Listen, I think that we need to focus on keeping a democracy for anybody to be president in the next couple of years. And that’s my central focus is helping the people of this country right now,” AOC responded.
Noticing that she hadn’t denied the possibility of running, Colbert insisted, “So it’s possible, it’s possible.”
This isn’t the first time Ocasio-Cortez has been questioned about her thoughts on Biden running in 2024.
Earlier in the month, Dana Bush of CNN also questioned AOC on her thoughts about a Biden 2024 bid, to which the New York Democrat responded, “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”
