VP Harris says she doesn't think about whether President Biden will seek re-election: 'I don’t think about it, nor have we talked about it'

When asked whether she assumed President Joe Biden would seek re-election, Vice President Kamala Harris said she does not think about that issue: "I’ll be very honest: I don’t think about it, nor have we talked about it," she said, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Biden, who turned 79 last month, made history earlier this year by becoming the oldest president in American history when he was sworn in at the age of 78. If he secures another term in office, he would be 82 at the start of his second term and 86 by the end of that term.

"I'm not going to talk about our conversations, but I will tell you this without any ambiguity: We do not talk about nor have we talked about re-election, because we haven’t completed our first year and we’re in the middle of a pandemic," Harris told the Journal during an interview on Wednesday.

Harris, who served in the U.S. Senate prior to becoming vice president, mounted a presidential bid in 2019 but later dropped out. The Journal reported that Harris said she is not presently considering whether she will ever pursue the presidency again.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki has said that President Biden intends to seek re-election.

But a Morning Consult/Politico survey of registered voters found that among Democrats and Democrat-leaners, 11% think that Biden should "definitely not" run in 2024, while 20% believe he should "probably not" run.

The survey found that 31% of potential Democratic primary voters would back Harris if Biden does not run in 2024. She received a much larger percentage of support than any of the other Democratic politicians listed in the survey, while 25% indicated that they were not sure who they would support.

New York Times opinion columnist Bret Stephens wrote a piece saying that Biden should announce that he does not plan to seek re-election.

"The man who once gave his party hope now weighs on his party’s fortunes like a pair of cement shoes," Stephens wrote. "He should announce, much sooner than later, that he will not run for a second term."