My intention has been from the beginning to run, but there’s too many other things I have to finish in the near term before I start a campaign. Is your age part of your own calculation? Into whether to run again? No, but it’s a legitimate for people to raise issues about my age. It’s totally legitimate to do that. And knowing I can say, watch me a few times. A man have answered that question. President Biden hinting that the launch of his 2024 reelection bid could be just around the corner. So what is First Lady Jill Biden? Think about that. Since early signs travel with the first lady to Africa on her recent five day tour addressing drought and hunger in the region, she sat down for an exclusive interview. Arlette Signs joins us now. So good morning to you. So is here isn’t he because he says he’s got to consult with the first lady and you got to ask her. So tell us. Well done. Jill Biden, of course, is a key figure for President Biden in so many of his decisions. And we had a chance to talk to her about a host of issues, including that possible reelection bid. And while she says no announcement plans have been finalized, in her mind, she essentially believes the decision has been made. Take a listen. Your husband was asked in an interview if he was running and he joked that he had to call you to find out. Was this recently it was resolved I must have missed it. So we’re going to the source. Where do things stand when that one’s an announcement coming? Well, he said he intends to run So nothing’s been planned yet. I think, you know, he’s been so busy with being in Ukraine handling some of the crises at home. So I think, you know, he’s not he’s putting that first. He’s putting America’s business before. He’s putting his own. But has the decision been made among the family that he’s going to run? Well, it’s Joe’s really it’s Joe’s decision. And we support whatever he wants to do. If he were there, if he wants to do something else. Were there too is there any chance at this point that he’s not going to run Not in my book. You’re all for it. I’m all for it, of course. So as we’re reading all of these tea leaves, this is just another indication of the president is moving closer to launching a possible reelection bid. Of course, his advisers have pointed to the coming months as a possible launch date for that. And you spent time with the first lady as I said in the introduction to you as she travels through Africa. Tell us more about that. That’s interesting. Yeah, we spent the last five days traveling through Africa, stops in Namibia and Kenya, where the first lady really talked about a host of issues, including women’s empowerment, the importance of young people and democracy, and also talking about some of the government programs that have aided Africa, including PEPFAR, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. But perhaps the most poignant moment came yesterday when she traveled down to rural a rural village in Kenya to see firsthand the impact of drought in the region. There were hundreds gathered there to receive health and nutritional services, and the first lady got to hear firsthand what these people were experiencing. And as we were there every step of the way. And we’ll be bringing that to you a bit later this week. Oh, interesting. Thank you very much. I don’t know if you guys have gotten our like we’re going to. We’ll be watching to see that. But if you’ve ever gone to Africa and gotten to see what PEPFAR does, it is astounding. It is astounding what the power of a United States president, what it what it can do. By the way, you can watch the rest of our let’s wide ranging interview. First Lady Jill Biden, CNN, primetime. Joe Biden Abroad airs on Thursday, 9 p.m., of course, right here on CNN. Can’t wait to watch that. And for more on what Joe Biden told or let there, let’s bring in CNN’s chief political correspondent and the co-anchor of State of the Union, Dana Bash. Dana. Anyone who has ever covered Biden knows that the probably biggest influence on his decisions is the first lady. So what she says there carries a lot of weight about what we could see happen with his 2024. Right. So he’s definitely running definitely. Unless he’s not. First of all, good morning, guys. Nice to see you. Not only does she carry the ultimate weight but the other thing that you all know from covering Joe Biden for a long time is that he’s not generally in a rush to make decisions, especially big consequential decisions which is part of the reason why it’s taking as as long in the view of some Democrats as it is. I’ll tell you what I’m hearing from sources in Biden world, and that is the following. Just like you just heard from the first lady, he’s been very focused on all of the international trips and and end and policy that he’s needed to focus on as the year anniversary of Ukraine approached. And just on the Raw Politics of it, they insist that because he is not likely to have a significant primary challenger, there’s no rush to jump in. They look at the calendar and the history, most recent history of a of a two term president, and that is his former boss, Barack Obama, that he didn’t announce until around now. The thing that is missing as far as we know, though, is the kind of behind the scenes movement that generally happens or the the sort of check out of the White House and checking into a political world from people who are close to him. We haven’t seen that happen yet. And that is a bit surprising. Is it because I feel like he’s taking sort of the diplomatic road rather than the traditional I’m going to run for president because he’s using it as, you know, traveling to Ukraine and what have you. And maybe that’s his best bet right now is that, hey, look, I’m in charge and I’m leading already Yeah, that’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. And look, there is frustration among a lot of Democrats, especially those who are reluctant to see him run because really for one reason only, and that is because of his age. And they’re thinking, well, maybe he won’t announce. And if he isn’t, you’re leaving the Democrats who are going to start to need to build campaigns a little bit on in a lurch. But there’s no real indication, particularly what we heard, given what we heard from the first lady to our outlet signs that plans have changed. You had a really enlightening, I thought, eye opening interview with the RNC chair, Ronna McDaniel, after her fourth win to lead that yesterday. And this exchange was striking about whether they will again call for a loyalty pledge for the eventual nominee. Listen, I want our viewers to hear this and get your thoughts on the other side. We haven’t put the criteria out, but I expect a pledge will be part of it. It was part of 2016. I think it’s kind of a no brainer, right? If you’re going to be on the Republican National Committee debate, stage asking voters to support you, you should say I’m going to support the voters and who they choose as the nominee. I want you to listen to what former President Donald Trump said a couple of weeks ago in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on this very topic If you’re not the nominee, will you support whoever the GOP nominee is? It would depend. I would I would give you the same answer I gave in 2016 during the debate. It would have to depend on who the nominee was. So are you prepared to block the former president in 2016? I did. Everybody signed it in 2016. But this is about the here and the now. He didn’t commit to it. I think they’re all going to sign it. I really do. She really I remember when she said to begin the interview, I ran on a unity platform. She really sounds like she believes it. Unity. It’s going to be all good. Everyone on the same page. What do you think? I think that is definitely her goal. I’ve heard from at least one potential candidate after that concern that in her in her effort to create unity among the candidates by asking them forcing them to sign a pledge in order to get on the debate stage, it will inherently cause fracture because of the other thing that I talked to her about, which is the elephant, no pun intended, in the room, which is the fact that we’re talking about the former president here, and we’re talking about a former president who has been disqualified from being president again in the eyes of several potential candidates for president. And the feeling is among some of them, how can I sign a pledge promising to support him as a nominee if he is a nominee? If I don’t think he should be president. And it’s going to be a very tough thing for some of these candidates who are going to have to decide from their perspective if they are going to put country first or party first. And that is kind of the calculus that is going on. Not among all of the Republican candidates who are not Donald Trump but among some of them. Never mind the question that I put in the clip that you played about Trump himself, whether he will actually stick to any kind of pledge. They signed pledges in 2016. It’s not really clear that they actually lived up to it. John Kasich signed that pledge to get on the debate stage and he never supported Donald Trump. Just one example. Yeah, it’s a great point that it’s not just about Trump and what he does. It’s also what Asa Hutchinson and others. One fascinating part of this interview, I thought was where she brought up the fact that she’s Mitt Romney’s niece. Something that we sat down play at times and she said, I’m Mitt Romney’s niece. I was appointed to the RNC by Trump. She was I would support both of them if they were the nominee, but I don’t know if they would support each other. Talking about how damaging all of this is for Republicans generally, that they’re not that they don’t know for sure that they support who the nominee is. Yeah, I really thought that was interesting. As well, because she was trying to make the point that she is a unifier and she is somebody who can kind of see broadly on the entire Republican spectrum. But look, again, it is damaging because we’re talking about the influence of one man, and that is Donald Trump. If Donald Trump were not part of this equation and you’re talking about Ron DeSantis, Asa Hutchinson, Chris Sununu, you know, Chris Christie, name your candidate. They would all be fine with signing a loyalty pledge. This is about Donald Trump and about the events of January six. Full stop.
