US President Joe Biden walks down the steps of Air Force One. Photo / AP
US President Joe Biden walks down the steps of Air Force One. Photo / AP
US Democrats are privately raising concerns that Joe Biden may not be the party's best bet in the 2024 election, as he continues to struggle with gaffes, low approval ratings, and a stalled agenda in Congress.
An increasing number are expressing worry about the US president's leadership, his age and his capability to take on Donald Trump a second time, according to reports.
Biden's 18-month presidency has been plagued by vote-losing issues, including inflation rates unseen in four decades, surging gas prices, a spate of mass shootings, and a Supreme Court poised to end the federal right to an abortion.
While Trump has not confirmed he will run in the next presidential election, he has hinted at a desire to return to the White House. And if the election was to be held tomorrow surveys have the 75-year-old Republican trouncing Biden by six points.
The New York Times interviewed 50 Democratic officials, from county leaders to members of Congress, who believed that an ageing Biden will not be able to take on an insurgent - and deeply determined - Republican party.
Nearly all believed his age - 79 now, 82 by the time the winner of the 2024 election is inaugurated - is a deep concern about his political viability.
America's paper of record tends to set the agenda of US media coverage. Its highly critical take on Biden's performance months out from the midterm elections suggests it is losing faith the president will be able to claw his way back.
"It reads like an obituary," wrote one political commentator of the Times piece.
Democrats initially explained away Biden's early polls ratings as outliers, but survey after survey in recent weeks has put his popularity at under 39 per cent - record lows for a sitting president.
Former US President Donald Trump speaks at a rally Photo / AP
According to separate Associated Press polling in January, just 48 per cent of Democrats want him to run again.
Some expressed anger that the president did not move to try to codify Roe v Wade, the law that guarantees women's access to abortion, before it was too late.
Others lamented his general lack of inability to persuade centrist Democratic senators to back his agenda, despite having narrow control to advance a progressive agenda.
"I just wish that since we have the majority now they would have behaved the way Republicans did and push things through," said Elizabeth Guzmán, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates.
Some in the party have been suggesting it starts considering possible alternatives, such as liberal senators Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, or possibly even young Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Howard Dean, the 73-year-old former Vermont governor and Democratic National Committee chairman, has long called for a younger generation of leaders in their 30s and 40s to rise in the party.
But many on the shortlist may struggle against strong Republican candidates, such as Trump or popular Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Sanders will be 83 and has already failed twice to win the Democratic nomination, Warren shares Sanders' liberal politics but lacks the following, and Buttigieg, 40, proves unpopular with black voters. Kamala Harris, Biden's Vice President, did not even make the Democrats' cut, according to the Times.
Cristóbal Alex, who was a senior adviser for the Biden campaign and was the deputy cabinet secretary in the White House until last month, said Biden was the only Democrat who could win a national election.
Incumbents usually have an advantage over challengers.
Some observers see the issue primarily as a White House messaging problem. They see Biden's loose comments not as gaffes but rather as unscripted statements of intent.
In March, Biden ended a speech in Poland by calling for Russian President Vladimir Putin's removal, which is not stated US policy and was quickly retracted by his press team.
"Every time Biden has a moment of authenticity they walk it back," said Chris Whipple, author of The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden's White House.
Biden took office at one of the toughest periods in American history as the country roiled from a global pandemic, protests against racial injustice and a contested election.
"He was dealt a rough hand," one Democratic insider told The Telegraph. "I really can't see how anyone else could have handled it better."
