President Joe Biden could decide within days whether to run for re-election, according to the Hawaii governor, who recently attended a meeting with Biden and other Democratic governors and whose family has known the president for years.
And if Biden decides not to run, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green told The Associated Press on Saturday that he believes the president will appoint a vice president Kamala Harris to replace him on the ticket.
“I think the president is going to stay in this race unless he feels like it's unwinnable or he feels like he needs to hear other voices in his inner circle saying he shouldn't run,” Green said. “If the president felt like he couldn't do it and really couldn't do it, he would resign.
“We'll probably know in the coming days what the president thinks about all of this,” he said.
Biden has repeatedly maintained that he will stay in the race against his likely Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump. But questions about Biden’s mental acuity have surfaced since his disastrous debate performance last month. While some of his fellow Democrats have encouraged Biden to leave the campaign, the president has pointed to the support of other elected officials in the party, particularly governors.
Green, who was a physician on Hawaii's Big Island before being elected governor, said everyone has parents or grandparents who have moments that aren't so great or pauses in their ability to express themselves clearly. But, he added, they're not discarded because of their experience, wisdom and role in the family.
“That's why I'm going to stand with the president until he tells me otherwise,” Green said.
Green said the few-day deadline for a decision anticipates the pressure that could be brought to bear on Biden after members of Congress return to Capitol Hill this week.
“I really, honestly think that he should make the decision. And it shouldn't come from any other governor. It shouldn't come from anyone other than the closest, closest advisers to him and his own heart,” Green said.
Green was quick to point out that Trump is only three years younger than Biden and that both will have bad days. But he argued that temperament is more important than age.
“For God's sake, these two guys need to have the nuclear codes,” Green said. “I don't want someone tweeting in the middle of the night and being furious with other countries. That's not good. That's not the problem we have with President Biden.”
If Biden were to leave the campaign, Green said the president should be able to determine for himself who would replace him on the list of candidates.
“I think it's pretty clear that the Democratic Party generally would be thrilled if the president were to pick his vice president if it came to that,” Green said.
Harris “is a powerful person, she's also a thought leader, she's an African-American who was (California's) attorney general,” Green said. “There are no credentials that are better than the current vice president.”
Green, whose uncle was Biden’s college roommate, also provided insight into the governors’ meeting with the president last week. During the meeting, Green asked Biden about his health. Biden responded that everything was fine except his brain.
Green told AP that the president was joking and that context was lost when others leaked the information.
“It was absolutely a joke, and to make a self-deprecating joke, your cognitive function has to be intact, period,” Green said.
He also denied any claims that advisers orchestrated the meeting so that governors who supported Biden would speak first to quell any dissent. Instead, he said it was a very candid, unscripted conversation with 25 governors with differing views.
“That phone call was exactly what you would expect in a coffee shop, a few people were mouthy, a few people, you know, probably over-praising the president, but almost everybody just wanted to know, ‘Are we OK?'” Green said.
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Thiessen reported from Anchorage, Alaska.
