Now We Know Who Convinced Joe Biden to Seek Reelection

It was widely expected that Joe Biden wouldn't serve out a full term as president. Even in 2020, his mental decline was obvious to anyone who watched him on the campaign trail. Few, if any, actually expected that he'd seek a second term.

PJ Media's Rick Moran noted a mere ten months into Biden's term that he was governing like he knew he wouldn’t seek reelection, and I agreed. Some believed that the only reason Biden and the White House were even claiming that Biden's plans to run was to “avoid weakening his standing,” which made sense and was an appropriate strategy. But the inevitability of a one-and-done for Joe Biden prompted the media to openly speculate who might replace him as the Democratic Party's candidate in 2024.

Several potential Biden alternatives were considered, including Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, and Amy Klobuchar. Aside from these 2020 retreads, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), former New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-Ill.), and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.) were mentioned as possibilities. Even Stacey Abrams was openly considered.

“Still, a nexus of anxious currents in the Democratic Party has stoked speculation about a possible contested primary in two years,” the New York Times reported in December 2021. “On top of concerns about Mr. Biden’s age and present unpopularity, there is an overarching fear among Democrats of the possibility of a Trump comeback — and a determination that the party must run a strong candidate to head it off.”

We can pretend all we want that Biden was always going to seek election, but there's little reason to believe that was always the game plan. So it should come as no surprise who was the driving force behind Biden's seeking a second term.

Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, author of “The Unfinished Presidency," said during an interview with CBS News’ “Face The Nation” on Sunday that one of the main reasons why President Joe Biden decided to run for re-election was his wife, Jill Biden.

“She is the vital part [of the campaign]. Dr. Jill Biden is it,” he explained. “You know, if you go back to 1952, Harry Truman could have run, and he didn’t. Why? Well, the Korean War and, you know, other reasons. But — but Bess wanted to go back to Independence [Missouri] — she didn’t like it in Washington. If you cut to ’68, Lyndon Johnson ... quit in March of ’68 and people will say because of Walter Cronkite. No. The big thing was his health was bad, he had a bad heart, he was smoking, high blood pressure, tension, and Lady Bird Johnson didn’t want to stay in... and convinced Johnson to step down."

“That’s not the case with Jill Biden," he continued. "She likes power. She wants to stay. She wants some sense of revenge. She teaches at Virginia Community College. This milieu around our building here, this is her home. And the idea of relinquishing it all after you’ve taken the slings and arrows of the last years of attacks, and at the last minute, just when you get all the delegates you’re going to say, I’m going to open it up to a bunch of people — it’s very childish when you read those kinds of reports.”