Progressive political activist and thinker Cornel West, who’s working for president in 2024 as an impartial candidate, attends the pro-Palestinian demonstration in entrance of the USA Mission to the United Nations and march to Grand Central in New York on November 8, 2023. | Supply: Anadolu / Getty
The lone remaining Black candidate working for the White Home in 2024 speculated about Joe Biden’s future within the race amid reported fears in regards to the president’s age and repeated polls reflecting voters’ dissatisfaction with the nation’s route.
Cornel West, who’s working as an impartial candidate, informed POLITICO in a brand new interview that he believes Biden received’t make it to Election Day and can find yourself dropping out of the race.
What did Cornel West say?
MORE: Op-Ed: Cornel West, A Prophet For President
“I’m not even positive whether or not I’ll be working in opposition to Biden,” West stated earlier than predicting Biden would “ have an LBJ second” – a reference to former President Lyndon B. Johnson’s resolution to not search reelection; a call that was made nearly eight months earlier than Election Day in 1968.
West stated he was “open to these potentialities” of Biden dropping out.
“He’s working out of gasoline,” West added about Biden.
Cornel West rejects the ‘spoiler’ label
West additionally rejected the notion that his candidacy would play the so-called “spoiler” position for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
“I don’t settle for the spoiler class,” West continued. “A vote for Biden, a vote for Trump is a vote for Biden and a vote for Trump.”
He later reasoned: “For those who’re in a race, and also you make a case, and so they vote for you, how do you change into the spoiler?”
West additionally went on to name Biden a “gangster.”
What the polling says
One ballot has recommended that West, who has defended accepting marketing campaign donations from a Republican billionaire suspected of bribing Supreme Court docket Justice Clarence Thomas, shouldn’t be the spoiler within the race. As an alternative, Robert F. Kennedy. Jr., is extra deserving of that title, based on knowledge from an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist nationwide ballot launched in October.
“Kennedy’s presence erodes Trump’s lead amongst independents and cuts into his help amongst Republicans,” the ballot discovered. “Trump’s loss amongst his base is double the loss Biden experiences amongst Democrats.”
Fifty-nine p.c of respondents in a CBS ballot launched final week permitted of Biden’s job efficiency as president. A current Wall Road Journal ballot discovered that 71% of Individuals suppose the U.S. is on the flawed monitor. An Related Press ballot from the summer time discovered that voters suppose Biden, who might be 82 on Election Day, is just too outdated to be president.
In the newest ballot that factored West’s candidacy, Trump edged Biden by 6 share factors (37% to 31%), with Kennedy receiving 8% help and West with 3%.
What Biden stated
Biden, for his half, has been unequivocal in his adamance that he’s within the presidential race to win it. Reuters reported that Biden stated he believes he’s the one candidate who can beat Trump, which is his main motivation for searching for reelection.
“If Trump wasn’t working, I’m unsure I’d be working,” Biden stated at a fundraising occasion earlier this month. “We can not let him win.”
Cornel West’s presidential candidacy
In October, West introduced he was leaving the Inexperienced Occasion to launch an impartial presidential bid.
“Persons are hungry for change. They need good insurance policies over partisan politics. We have to break the grip of the duopoly and provides energy to the folks,” West, 70, wrote in a social media submit accompanied by a 40-second video clip. “I’m working as an Impartial candidate for President of the USA to finish the iron grip of the ruling class and guarantee true democracy!”
It was the second time West modified his political affiliation since declaring his presidential candidacy in June.
Again then, West stated he was working “for the Individuals’s Occasion to reintroduce America to the perfect of itself – preventing to finish poverty, mass incarceration, ending wars and ecological collapse, guaranteeing housing, well being care, training and dwelling wages for all!”
Weeks later, he introduced that he was switching to the Inexperienced Occasion, a declaration that he stated on the time was in “the spirit of a broad United Entrance and coalition technique.”
SEE ALSO:
‘The Shadow Of Jim Crow’: Cornel West Rips Harvard In Letter Of Resignation After Tenure Controversy
Dr. Cornel West: As soon as You Break The Again Of Worry, It’s A New Day For Oppressed Individuals
12 photographs
