Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to see President Joe Biden seek reelection next year, but wouldn’t say whether Vice President Kamala Harris should again join him on the Democratic ticket.
Asked on Boston Public Radio Friday if Biden, 80, should run for a second term in 2024, Warren was quick with her answer.
“Yes. He should run again,” Warren said. “And he is running again.”
Her response to a follow-up question of whether Harris should be his running mate was less concrete.
“I really want to defer to what makes Biden comfortable on his team,” she said. “I’ve known Kamala for a long time. I like Kamala. I knew her back when she was an attorney general and I was still teaching and we worked on the housing crisis together, so we go way back. But they need — they have to be a team, and my sense is they are — I don’t mean that by suggesting I think there are any problems. I think they are.”
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Warren, Biden and Harris all ran for president in the 2020 Democratic primary.
Warren dropped out after coming up short in the March 2020 Super Tuesday primaries, including a third-place finish in Massachusetts behind frontrunner Biden and Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. Harris, who has served as both California’s attorney general and a U.S. senator from that state, ended her campaign in December 2019, and she and Warren both ultimately endorsed Biden.
Biden has not formally announced a reelection bid but has said since early in his presidency that he intends to run again.
Warren, who said last week that she plans to seek a third Senate term in 2024, said Biden has “gotten a tremendous amount done” in his first two years in office with narrow Democratic majorities in Congress. Republicans took control of the House in last fall’s midterm elections, enabling them to push back against Biden’s agenda.
The senator pointed to the CHIPS and Science Act as among Biden's accomplishments. The $280 billion package includes money to boost domestic manufacturing of semiconductors, invest in regional innovation and technology hubs, and support research and development efforts.
“When I ran for Senate a decade ago, I said one of the things we need to do, as a nation: we need to double our investment in science,” Warren said. “That is exactly what we did last summer, and Joe Biden signed that into law. He showed he’s willing to wade into the fights. He waded into the fight on student loan debt for 43 million Americans.”
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in February for two cases challenging Biden’s proposal to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debts for eligible borrowers.
Even with the cases on the docket, Warren said a courtroom victory is not the only path forward for supporters of debt relief and that legislative and administrative moves are also options.
