First lady Jill Biden said Friday that President Joe Biden “pretty much” just has to decide on a date and time for his 2024 announcement, marking the most direct indication of Biden’s plans so far.
“Is all that’s left at this point is just to figure out the time and place for the announcement?” The Associated Press’ Darlene Superville asked Jill Biden in an interview.
“Pretty much,” the first lady responded.
The president and White House staff have repeatedly said that Biden intends to run for a second term, but he has made comments suggesting that he will consider his health and family in the decision. (RELATED: ‘I Think People Have To Just Watch Me’: Biden Reveals Thoughts On His Health, Running In 2024)
On Feb. 8, the president said he had not made a “decision” on whether to run for another term.
WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 22: U.S. President Joe Biden returns to the White House on February 22, 2023 in Washington, DC. Biden is returning from a trip to Ukraine and Poland where he met with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“I would be completely, thoroughly honest with the American people if I thought there was any health problem, anything that would keep me from being able to do the job. And and, so we’ll see. But, you know, I just — I think people have to just watch me,” Biden said in an interview with PBS. “I haven’t made that decision. That’s my intention, I think. But I haven’t made that decision firmly yet.”
“How many times does he have to say it for you to believe it?” the first lady said in the Friday interview.
She said the president will “of course” listen to her to make his decision because they’re a “married couple,” but “he makes up his own mind, believe me.”
“He says he’s not done. He’s not finished what he’s started. And that’s what’s important,” she added. “He’s just not done.”
Joe Biden is the oldest president in American history and will be 86 by the end of his second term. The president’s physician deemed him “fit for duty” in his physical released on Feb. 16.