Bill Ackman, the billionaire hedge fund manager, is calling for President Joe Biden to "step aside" in order to allow another Democrat to represent the party in the 2024 presidential election.
Ackman said as much during a recent appearance on Bloomberg Television's The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations.
Ackman, during the interview, questioned Biden's current "intellectual" capacity.
Ackman even went so far as to say that he would be "more open" to voting for a Republican candidate in 2024 than to voting for Biden, should Biden continue to pursue reelection.
To help put Ackman's remarks into perspective, it has to be noted that he has been a supporter of Biden.
During the Bloomberg interview, for example, Ackman said, "Biden’s done a lot of good things."
So, Ackman's argument is not that Biden ought to forego reelection because he has been a bad president. Rather, Ackman's argument seems to be that Biden does not have the capacity to effectively lead the country for another term.
Referring to Biden, Ackman told Bloomberg, "I think his legacy will not be a good one if he is the nominee. The right thing for Biden to do is to step aside, and to say he’s not going to run, and create the opportunity for some competition."
Later in the interview, Ackman added, "You need to be at your intellectual best, and I don’t think Biden is there. I don’t say that, you know, with any derision of the president, but I think he’s clearly past his physical and cognitive peak."
If you have been following 2024 polls and 2024 reporting, then it is likely that you know that Ackman is not alone in his opinion. There are many Democrats who believe that the party, in 2024, ought to head in a direction other than Biden.
ABC News recently reported:
Three-quarters of Americans (74%) said Biden was too old to run for another term in a survey conducted by ABC News and the Washington Post in September.
But, age - and the decreased capacity that comes along with age - is not the only problem that Americans have with Biden. The truth is that, at the moment, it is hard to find a poll that is favorable for Biden.
This has led to serious concerns, within the Democratic Party, about Biden's chances of winning in 2024, regardless of who the Republican nominee will be. But, the question is: "if not Biden, then who?"
This is the Democrats' 2024 problem. Ackman pointed to U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN). But, polling, thus far, does not suggest that Phillips - or, for that matter, anyone else - can really challenge Biden, which is why some, like Ackman, are calling for Biden to "step aside."
