The “Who is running in 2024?” tea leaves thread

[Lambsbread]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfGQ6UizqcU
Hes running

Yep sounds like it

[Lambsbread]

Am I the only one that could see Greg Gianforte being a dark horse candidate for '24?

[Lambsbread]

Am I the only one that could see Greg Gianforte being a dark horse candidate for '24?

This assumes he is elected governor, right?

Indeed

[Lambsbread]

Ummmmm....

Meghan Markle harbors serious ambitions to run for president of the United States, according to a report.

After the Duchess of Sussex and husband Prince Harry dumped royal duties with their historic Megxit this year, the 39-year-old former "Suits" star now has her eye on the White House, a close friend told Vanity Fair.

"One of the reasons she was so keen not to give up her American citizenship was so she had the option to go into politics," the unidentified friend told the mag.

"I think if Meghan and Harry ever gave up their titles she would seriously consider running for president," the friend added of rumors of a 2024 run.

Her biographer, Omid Scobie, also previously claimed that the former actress "has her eyes set on the US presidency."

"Meghan is the embodiment of the American dream. One day we may see Meghan become president," the author of "Finding Freedom: Harry, Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family" previously told a documentary, Vanity Fair said.

[...]

F--k it. Let's do it.

[Lambsbread]

I have this deep gut instinct that Trump will not ultimately run. He will tease it, he may even continue doing rallies and selling merch and talking about why the country needs him, but he hates being President.

[Lambsbread]

Hawley has apparently been planning to run for president in 2024 for decades now:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/25/josh-hawley-school-yearbook-2024-republican-run

Josh Hawley, the Republican from Missouri who faces calls for expulsion from the Senate over his support of Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn his election defeat, signed a friend’s eighth-grade yearbook “Josh Hawley, president 2024”.

The same yearbook named Hawley and the friend whose yearbook he signed among “future presidents”, the Kansas City Star reported.

What a freaking weirdo

[Lambsbread]

Hawley has apparently been planning to run for president in 2024 for decades now:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/25/josh-hawley-school-yearbook-2024-republican-run

Josh Hawley, the Republican from Missouri who faces calls for expulsion from the Senate over his support of Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn his election defeat, signed a friend’s eighth-grade yearbook “Josh Hawley, president 2024”.

The same yearbook named Hawley and the friend whose yearbook he signed among “future presidents”, the Kansas City Star reported.

What a freaking weirdo

Not compared to his contemporaries. Most people who make credible bids for president have at least imagined the idea much earlier in their lives, and the majority have probably made certain preparations. Biden's been running since before 1984 at the latest and looking at a younger example:

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1119618985316818944

Buttigieg is a weirdo too. It's not the aspiration that's weird, it's picking an exact year and trying to build a resume in time to run for President. Pete obviously wanted to run as soon as he was eligible whereas Hawley expected to build more experience first.

[Lambsbread]

Gaetz would be a very weak GE candidate. What are his foreign policy credentials? He'd be the Republican version of Dukakis and would lose unless Biden manages to maintain horrendous approvals.

What were Trump's foreign policy credentials?

[Lambsbread]

https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1362194935752110082

My suspicion has always been that he will tease this out until the last moment before ultimately deciding not to run.

[Lambsbread]

I'm sure the Republicans in the Senate who voted to acquit Trump are going to be thrilled to find out his political career isn't even close to being finished. This was always going to happen, and it's going to be an absolutely brutal election cycle.

Inb4 Ted Cruz runs for President anyway and reverts back to his 2016 primary rhetoric on Trump

[Lambsbread]

Tupac IN:

https://twitter.com/catargetbot/status/1366186574673702917?s=21

[Lambsbread]

Dang, that job had Herman Cain's name written all over it!

[Lambsbread]

Gaetz headed to New Hampshire:

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gaetz-to-new-hampshire-to-help-raise-money-for-fellow-republicans

Multiple Republican sources in the Granite State told Fox News on Wednesday that the three-term representative and close ally of former President Trump will headline the Nashua Republican City Committee’s annual "Steak Out" fundraiser.

Again, not sure if Gaetz is really toying with a 2024 presidential run or not....he seems unlikely to run if Trump does, but maybe also unlikely to run if DeSantis does, given his hyping of DeSantis.  But he is nonetheless planning this NH trip, and it looks like he's also considering a departure from Congress in order to work for Newsmax:

https://www.axios.com/matt-gaetz-retirement-congress-newsmax-e1a0e6bb-0279-4e97-ab22-508e28f4347a.html

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) has privately told confidants he's seriously considering not seeking re-election and possibly leaving Congress early for a job at Newsmax, three sources with direct knowledge of the talks tell Axios.

Not sure if leaving Congress means he's more or less likely to run for president.  Presumably *less* likely to run for president in 2024, since he wouldn't have much time in the new job before a presidential campaign.  But a media job could increase his profile, and set him up better for a future run, in 2028 or later.

Well, there's also this issue now:

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-ne-joel-greenberg-matt-gaetz-investigation-sex-trafficking-20210330-moyyt73tbzhrlmpjcwkqv2oeyq-story.html

Oh wow. Gaetz just became the frontrunner for the nomination.

[Lambsbread]

Rockstar Billie Joe Armstrong of the punk band Green Day filed paperwork to run for the Republican nomination in 2024 on March 17th. No okie mentioned this so I decided to

"Everything on the internet is true 100% of the time, no exceptions." - Abraham Lincoln

[Lambsbread]

Ron DeSantis is stealing Trump's mannerisms and speaking patterns. He's running.

https://twitter.com/dcexaminer/status/1379467070513946630

Wow, that's uncanny. It's not very hard to do a Trump impression, but it takes a lot of work to do one this good.

[Lambsbread]

As of now, the only Republicans that have an over 5-10% chance of getting the nomination are Trump and DeSantis. I've been thinking about who would be a good running mate for them. If Trump is the nominee, I personally wish he not pick DeSantis because he would be too useful in Florida. This might be a bit of an unpopular opinion but I think Ben Carson would be a safe pick for Trump. He has been very loyal to Trump, stays out of controversy, and has a lot of appeal to the Religious Right and would get voters fired up over abortion. Any other ideas I have would be me injecting too much of my own beliefs.

DeSantis being the nominee opens up many more opportunities for running mate but right now I can't think of many people he would seriously entertain. Personally, I think the best choice would be a good representative from a safe Republican area like Paul Gosar.

The white nationalist (or white nationalist sympathizer) who traffics amongst far right extremists, including militias, Alex Jones, and Nick Fuentes? Yeah, that's about on brand for the GOP. If only he was more open in his embrace of QAnon then he'd be perfect.

[Lambsbread]

Anybody think Hawley's a likely contender for 2024? I think he's one of the only candidates who would be at all competitive against Trump in a primary.

Not only would he not run against Trump, he's polling at like...1% in polls without Trump included.

[Lambsbread]

https://twitter.com/AndyKroll/status/1417146290870358025

He's also a liar who changes his mind on things depending on which way the wind is blowing, so...

[Lambsbread]

No, really, I insist that he move to another country to find out if he can still run. Please do it.

[Lambsbread]

Buttigieg advisors are trying to shut down talk that he’s considering a 2024 presidential run:

https://www.businessinsider.com/is-pete-buttigieg-running-2024-presidential-primary-campaign-bid-2021-11

A dozen allies of the 39-year-old transportation secretary interviewed by Insider said they didn't expect Buttigieg to jump into a Democratic primary should President Joe Biden not seek a second term and open the door to a wide-open race for his successor.

They said Buttigieg had a long future ahead of him. And they insisted that running against Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black and first woman vice president, as well as the first person of South Asian descent to hold the office — and someone who has struck a genuine friendship with Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten — was not something he was contemplating.

"Knowing Pete, he's like, ‘F**k no. I don't want to be that person,'" said a Democrat familiar with Buttigieg and Harris' relationship who has been in the room with the two.
.
.
.
"It's something on the minds of the Washington pundit class, not Pete's," an aide from Buttigieg's 2020 campaign told Insider. "The only conversations about 2024 I've been in are when a reporter asks me about it."

Yeah, that makes total sense. Why would Pete run against Kamala in an open primary? He already had trouble garnering black support last time. Imagine being the token white dude running against the first black female VP? Even if Kamala isn't incredibly electable, it would be much more likely for another woman or person of color to successfully challenge her.

[Lambsbread]

Jon Stewart's time, if there ever was one, was 2016. I would've loved if he had ran, but that ship has sailed.

[Lambsbread]

Funny that Tucker says a candidate should "talk about issues that actually matter" when his show is 90% "some teacher in some big city that no Fox viewer actually lives in said that white Americans in history did bad things"

[Lambsbread]

Biden feels like he has something to prove? Huh, I wonder what he could do about that.

[Lambsbread]

Not sure if this is the right thread for this, but Manchin has declined to endorse Biden for re-election.

“I don’t know who is going to be running. If Joe Biden runs again and he is the Democratic nominee, depending on who the Republican nominee is, we will just have to wait and see,” Manchin told Cuomo. “I am not predicting anything or how I would support or not support, or get involved or not. But I can tell you this, whoever the elected president is – Democrat, Republican, independent – every one of us should pray they succeed. I am going to do everything I can to make that person successful.”

[Lambsbread]

Bernie Sanders leaving the door open to a third White House campaign.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Monday said he hadn’t yet decided whether he will make another bid for the White House.

“That’s a big — you know, I haven’t made that decision,” Sanders said on “CBS Mornings.”

Bernie won't run again. I think this non-answer is more about keeping the door open for another person to run to carry his torch rather than he himself running. But he has also made clear that he will support Biden if he runs again.