It was widely thought that President Joseph Biden would announce his intentions to compete for re-election immediately following his State of the Union speech on February 7.

More than two weeks later, no such declaration has been made, and a story on Wednesday suggested Biden may not run for president in 2024 after all.

According to four individuals “familiar with the president’s thinking,” preparations to begin his campaign in February have been abandoned.

“A final call has been pushed aside as real-world events intervene,” according to the sources.

Politico reported, “While the belief among nearly everyone in Biden’s orbit is that he’ll ultimately give the all-clear, his indecision has resulted in an awkward deep-freeze across the party — in which some potential presidential aspirants and scores of major donors are strategizing and even developing a Plan B while trying to remain respectful and publicly supportive of the 80-year-old president.”

Biden does not appear to have decided on a re-election bid, which was previously assumed to be a certain conclusion. According to Politico, people close to the president described him as “a kind of Hamlet on Delaware’s Christina River, warily biding his time as he ponders the particulars of his final campaign.”

“An inertia has set in,” a Biden confidant said. “It’s not that he won’t run, and the assumption is that he will. But nothing is decided. And it won’t be decided until it is.”

If he chooses not to seek for re-election in 2024, the president’s uncertainty makes it exceedingly tough for other Democrats to enter the primary battle. That puts significant contributors in doubt as well.

Time is on the Democrats’ side, according to Politico, because they surpassed expectations in the November midterm elections and perceive “no genuine primary competition.”

The source also suggested that Biden’s team may be postponing the decision to “avoid having to report a less-than-robust fundraising total for a first quarter that’s almost over.”

Yet, according to Politico, Biden’s aides have started assembling a campaign team and have partnered with the super PAC Future Forward, which has already broadcast several TV advertisements in support of the president’s plan.

Three persons with knowledge of the matter told Politico that the president “has talked only sparingly about a possible campaign” and “spends little time discussing the election.”

More on this story via The Western Journal:

There is naturally some speculation that the current probes into his son, Hunter Biden, as well as the special counsel investigation into his own mishandling of classified documents, might be giving him pause.

“A decision from Biden to [forgo] another run would amount to a political earthquake not seen among Democrats in more than a half century, when Lyndon B. Johnson paired his partial halting of the U.S. bombing of Vietnam with his announcement to step aside, citing deepening ‘division in the American house now,’” Politico said. CONTINUE READING…