Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, a Democrat, said Saturday that President Joe Biden could make a decision within days on whether to remain in the presidential race and seek re-election.
Greene has participated in recent meetings with Biden and nearly two dozen Democratic governors amid concerns about the president’s re-election bid, following the president’s poor performance in a debate with former President Donald Trump last month.
“I think the president will stay in this race unless he feels he can’t win or he feels he has to hear from others in his inner circle that he shouldn’t run,” said Greene, whose family has known the president for years. said in an interview with the Associated Press. “If the president feels that he is not up to the job and he is, he will step down.”
“We’ll probably find out in the next few days how the president feels about all of this,” he added.
Top Democrats plan meeting on Biden’s future even as president vows to stay in the race
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden walk with Hawaii Governor Josh Green (second from left) and his wife Jamie Green as they walk through the giant Banyan Tree, visit areas devastated by Maui wildfires. (Associated Press)
Greene said he believes Biden should be allowed to choose who will replace him if he drops out of the race, with the president likely naming Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor.
“I think it’s clear that Democrats in general would be ecstatic if the president named a vice president,” Greene said.
Harris “is a powerful person and a thought leader, a woman who is African American, [California’s] Attorney General,” Green said. “There is no one better qualified than the current vice president.
Biden, 81, has insisted multiple times over the past week and a half that he will remain in the race, including in an ABC News interview that aired Friday night.
But since the president’s debate performance, people, including members of his own party, have expressed concerns about his mental acuity. Some Democrats have called on Biden to drop out of the presidential race, while others in the party, particularly governors, have said they continue to support his re-election.
Greene said his prediction that the president would make a decision within days takes into account the expected pressure that could be placed on the president when lawmakers return to Capitol Hill this week.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., is working to win over Democratic senators for a meeting Monday to discuss pressuring Biden to drop out of the presidential race. Separately, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., will hold a virtual meeting with top Democrats on Sunday, where leaders are expected to discuss a path forward for the Biden campaign.
President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event at the Martin Luther King Jr. Entertainment Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (Hannah Bell/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“I really, honestly think he has to make a decision,” Green said. “And it shouldn’t come from another governor. It shouldn’t come from anyone but the advisors closest to him and his own heart.”
Green also emphasized that the 78-year-old Trump is the biggest threat to Biden’s re-election. He is only three years younger than Biden, and both of them will experience cognitive errors in the future.
But Greene believes temperament matters more than age in a presidential campaign.
“For God’s sake, these two guys have to have the nuclear codes. I don’t want a guy who’s tweeting in the middle of the night and being angry about other countries,” Green said of Trump. “This is not good. This is not an issue between us and President Biden.”
Greene, who was a doctor before moving to the governor’s mansion, said everyone has an aging parent or grandparent who has experienced pauses in speech or other mental lapses, but they are not abandoned because they still have a wealth of experience and wisdom and function within the family.
“That’s why I’m going to stand by the president until he decides otherwise,” Green said.
Greene also provided some insight into meetings with Biden and other Democratic governors. Green said he asked Biden about his health, and the president responded that everything was fine except for his brain.
Former Obama adviser laments Biden’s ABC interview: “Denial, delusion, contempt.”
Hawaii Governor Josh Green speaks during a press conference on the destruction of historic Lahaina and the aftermath of wildfires in west Maui on August 10, 2023 in Wailuku, Hawaii Speech. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)
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Greene said Biden’s previous public remarks were made in jest, saying the context was lost when others leaked them.
“It’s definitely a joke, and in order to make a self-deprecating joke, you have to have full cognitive functioning,” Green said.
Greene also pushed back against suggestions that advisers arranged the meeting so that the pro-Biden governor could speak first to quell any critics. The reality, Hawaii’s governor said, was that the meeting resulted in a very candid, off-the-cuff conversation with governors who had different views.
“The call was like what you’d imagine in a coffee shop, with a few people talking, a few people, you know, probably over-praising the president, but almost everyone just wanted to see, ‘Are we OK? ‘” Green said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
