Biden eyeing 2024 reelection but current focus midterms, says White House

US President Joe Biden intends to run for the second presidential term in 2024, according to White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, lending credence to reports that have been doing rounds in the US media.

According to Press TV, in her remarks on Sunday, Jean-Pierre said while Biden's re-election bid was a certainty, the administration's current focus was on the upcoming 2022 midterm elections, which will determine the road to the next presidential election.

Earlier, a report in Bloomberg said Biden was laying the groundwork to announce a 2024 bid after the midterms.

"It is clear-cut that he's our best candidate," former Biden senior advisor Cedric Richmond was quoted as saying in the report.

Jean-Pierre, however, said the current uncontrollable inflation and high costs in the country were the “No. 1 priority” for the White House.

The Biden administration official lauded the new Inflation Reduction Act, which passed the House on Friday after a 51-50 vote in the Senate.

She also pushed back against concerns by some that the multi-billion-dollar climate, tax, and health care bill will not tamp down inflation.

“There’s more to it. It’s just it was the way that Republicans did that was so that it could make an argument that is false. It is going to fight inflation,” Jean-Pierre said.

“It has been proven and has been said by economists across the board on the Republican side and on the Democrat side.”

New polls show record low approval numbers for Biden's presidency, with most people upset at his handling of the economy, particularly the high inflation and rising gas prices in the country.

According to a recent poll, Biden is the least popular US president in decades with 59 percent of Americans believing his performance has been poor and 45 percent “strongly disapproving" of the Democratic president's leadership in the past two years.

Biden and his team have been denying official reports indicating that the US economy is in a state of recession.

ME