Democratic Rep. Maloney backtracks on not endorsing Biden in 2024: ‘Mr. President, I apologize’

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, apologized to President Joe Biden for saying she would not support a 2024 presidential bid and tried to reframe her statement during an interview Thursday.

After a reporter questioned whether Biden should seek re-election during a Tuesday debate against top Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., Maloney said, “I don’t think he’s going to run for re-election.”

The media quickly added Maloney to the growing list of Democrats who do not endorse the president. Maloney joined CNN on Thursday to apologize to Biden for not supporting his potential run. “Mr. President, I apologize,” he said. “I want you to run. I don’t think you’re going to run, but if you run, when you run, I’ll be there 100 percent.”

The reporter then asked Maloney to explain why he thought he wouldn’t be running. “That was just my personal belief … but I’ll support him if he comes forward, and it’s entirely his decision … We’re all entitled to our own information.”

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CNN’s Brianna Keilar presses Rep. Maloney on why she thinks Biden won’t run again.
(Screenshot/CNN/NewDay)

Maloney then praised Biden and how he has handled the presidency so far, touting the recent introduction of the “exciting” Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

In recent weeks, after Biden’s approval rating plummeted to an all-time low of 31 percent, Democrats have been dodging the question of whether they would support the president in a 2024 run.

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Nadler, who ran against Maloney in New York’s newly redrawn 12th Congressional District, was also asked whether Biden should face re-election during the debate.

“It’s too early to tell. It doesn’t serve the purpose of the Democratic Party to address this until after the midterms,” ​​Nadler said.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, DN.Y., is running against Rep. Carolyn Maloney in the August Democratic primary for New York’s 12th Congressional District.
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Other Democrats have avoided pledging to support Biden or have said outright that he should not run for president again. Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., told an interviewer that instead of Biden seeking re-election, “The country would be well served by a new generation of compelling, well-prepared, dynamic Democrats stepping up.”

Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minnesota, agreed with Phillips that the country needs “a new generation of leadership” up and down the ballot box. Phillips and Craig are running for re-election this fall.

Rep. Tom Malinowski, DN.J., said during a town hall, “I’m not going to have an opinion on who should be president.”

Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio., is running against Republican candidate JD Vance in the Ohio Senate race.
(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio., told Fox News’ Sandra Smith, “I’m working on my own election and that’s all I’m focused on right now.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocastio-Cortez, D-New York, told CNN earlier this summer, “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. … In the event that he runs again, I think so, we’ll take a look at it.”

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Maloney was the only representative to try to retract an apparently anti-Biden 2024 statement.

Biden, who would be 81 in the next presidential election, has not officially announced a re-election bid, although the White House has said he plans to run.