Steve Forbes says Joe Biden will not be the Democratic nominee: 'They cannot have him running'

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Steve Forbes predicts Biden ‘will not’ be the Democratic Party nominee for 2024

Forbes Media chairman Steve Forbes discusses the state of the U.S. economy and the debt ceiling talks.

While inflation has come down slightly since record highs last year, nearly half of American voters feel President Biden's policies are hurting them and 83% of voters feel the economy is "only fair/poor." On "America's Newsroom" on Friday, Forbes Media chairman Steve Forbes argued that the state of the economy will cost President Biden the 2024 Democratic nomination.

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STEVE FORBES: I think what's happening with the economy, even though it's not officially in a recession, it's sort of the economic equivalent of walking pneumonia. Not enough to put you in bed yet, but just dragging you down, draining the energy. I think there is economy fatigue, one thing after another. So, inflation has come down a little bit. Prices are still going up. Wages aren't going up fast enough. There's a feeling the country is adrift. These whole negotiations on the debt ceiling, my goodness! They can't control spending even though it's $2 trillion higher than it was a couple of years ago. People just throw up their hands and say these people are out of control.

[…]

And I think that's why next year Joe Biden will not be the Democratic Party nominee … Because the economy — yeah, they can sweep the Hunter stuff away — but that has a stench out there. So you have a poor economy, you have a president people feel is not up to the job anymore, certainly not for the next four years. So I don't know what the scenario is going to be, but they cannot have him running in November of 2024.

Inflation rose again in April despite an aggressive interest-rate hike campaign by the Federal Reserve, indicating that strong underlying price pressures are still bubbling beneath the surface of the economy — and continuing to burden millions of Americans.

The Labor Department said earlier this month that the consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.4% in April from the previous month, much faster than the 0.1% increase recorded in March.

Prices climbed 4.9% on an annual basis, slightly below the 5% increase forecast by Refinitiv economists. 

Although inflation has cooled from a peak of 9.1%, it remains about more than double the pre-pandemic average and well above the Fed's 2% target rate.

In addition to inflation, Congress and the White House are engaged in negotiations over the national debt ceiling. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen named June 1 as the deadline to extend the debt ceiling, so with the deadline looming, fears over the economic consequences of default or downgrade are growing. 

Biden is struggling to maintain approval from the American public in light of the economic challenges. A poll from The Associated Press and the National Opinion Research Center (AP-NORC) at the University of Chicago found that Biden has just 33% approval when it comes to economic issues.

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Fox News' Anders Hagstrom and FOX Business' Megan Henney contributed to this report. 

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