>> biden is seeking presidential election next year. the campaign ahead is ugly to be unpredictable. what challenges does biden change's -- face and what do voters wants? this is "inside story". ♪ >> welcome to the program, joe biden is to run again for the u.s. presidency, saying he wants to finish the job.

despite facing criminal charges, trump hopes to be his opponent if he wins the republican nomination. at the age of 80, biden is already the oldest u.s. president in history, brushing off concerns about his fitness for a second term. we will discuss the battle ahead in a moment. our report first. >> now that joe biden has announced his 2024 reelection campaign, the work begins to convince voters he deserves another four years in the white house. that may be challenging come with his approval rating at 40%, his team needs independent voters. many of them discouraged and overwhelmed with high inflation and the rising cost of living. >> the pace of inflation has been coming down from nine months in a row, there is more to go.

it has slowed by 45%, but we haven't more to do. >>'s supporters say he is a solid leader during uncertain times. they point to biden's record and his a backing of abortion rights, gonna legislation and social security benefits. >> i think it's wonderful. it seems like we are doing pretty good. i don't know anybody else that i would want us to a represent us at this difficult time. >> critics are not convinced. they insist biden isn't leaving the country in the wrong direction. from constant spending to a historic a surge of immigration at the southern border. at 80 years old, he is already the oldest president in u.s. history. if elected, he would be 86 at the end of his second term. >> i'm a little bothered, he is a little old. if i can't join the army and 58, i don't think he should run the country at 80. >> democrats worn some of donald

trump's supporters pose a threat to democracy. that messaging doesn't appear to be enough. a potential 2024 rematch between widen and trump is leaving some voters disengaged. >> i'm indifferent. i haven't seen policies that people say while he was campaigning. i really don't care. >> bidens team says the president can and should serve a second term. the question now is whether voters will agree. >> let's introduce our guests for today's discussion, joining us from the u.s.. we are joined by democratic strategist at -- and national security staffer to joe.

from stamford connecticut, republican strategist, liz is the former national committee spokesperson. also laura lessing. welcome to you all. david, 44% of democrats say he is too old to run. 70% of responders to a pole don't think he should run again because of his age, he will be 86 by the end of his second term if reelected. biden is just too old to run again. >> i wouldn't say that president biden is too old, i think he is in good health, his mental acuity is strong, and if you look at what he has done over

the last three years, he is successful. i think that what president biden and his team and vice president harris will be doing is running on the record over the last three years. the american people realize that we are on the upswing and if provement's -- improvements are being made. >> he says he has been successful but his age shouldn't matter, that is not how republicans see us. >> no absolutely not. going back to the point you made at the top, at least 44 percent of democrats also don't see it this way. i will tell you, irrespective of how people respond to polls, i don't know a single democrat who thinks joe biden is in a good position to do the job.

he is clearly not as sharp as he used to be. in a contest with trump, we are dealing with two old people, both of whom seem to be losing the plot. he may be able to eke that out. if he is running against someone who is younger, which is where the republican party is inclined to go, he is going to have a serious issue. a lot of his own voters don't think he is up to the task. they will vote for him anyway, but it will have an impact on swing voters. >> laura, the advantages that biden joyed along -- biden enjoined before the 2020 election are no more. does biden have the energy to mount an effective presidential campaign? >> i don't know if he will be

fueled by jenny's ice cream this time around. he is unlikely to be challenged in the primaries, we have two minor challenges that won't be significant for him. trump is likely to be the candidate on the others. if you have an 80-year-old versus a 76-year-old, you start talking about what we want in terms of policy priorities. >> david, he says he wants to finish the job. he has touted the achievements of his first term in the reelection campaign ad he launched. given that the house is no longer controlled by his party and come across face a type tough fight, what can he finish? >> the bipartisan infrastructure

law, iqs the term bipartisan loosely, is a perfect example of what he p2 buttigieg has been doing is bringing home the bacon to every congressional district, every city, every county, every little town, improving the livelihood of our to citizens -- our citizens. that is something that biden is responsible for. he will be continuing to push these successes, act the same time, he is going to expose the republican party and what they are doing to limit reproductive rights for women. there are fewer rights and responsibilities, it's going to be an easy target. >> liz, will biden run against

warmth -- trump in 2024? or will a younger candidate be selected? >> i don't think we are running trump in 2024. think of the polls are just a test of an name id, as popular as ron desantis is within the republican party, he would not have the name idea that donald trump does. he never sat to their hosting a tv show after season after season. he did not sit in the white house for four years. those polls that show ron desantis not in a great position right now are going to change shortly. i spec t will join sometime in the end of may.

that is very important. everybody who is banking on this being a biden trump redux is making a big mistake. if the democratic party is working under the assumption they are running against donald trump, they better figure out what they are going to do about running against ron santos. hitting him on abortion will be effective. it is clear if you look at the polling, ron desantis performs at her then donald trump does against joe biden. >> what happens if trump isn't selected as the republican nominee and runs anyway? who will be hurt most by that? >> we will have to see what actually happens. there is a way biden can -- there's always a way any presidential candidate can win.

at the head of the 2016 election, all political prognosticators he gave trump a 1-5% chance of winning. it's important to remember that anything can happen in these races. news events will shape them things will happen that will pop up into people's minds and register on the voters minds. these things can impact the contours of the race. biden could be capable of pulling this out. if he plays the abortion card heavily has a better chance of doing that. it will be tough for him to beat ron desantis. one thing we know is that swing voters have decided, even though they think this indictment is a politicized, they think it is disqualifying. when you have a chunk of the electorate affiliating as

independent, and the partisan affiliation getting smaller, it will be hard for donald trump to win a presidential election if he can't appeal to swing voters. ron desantis has an ability to. it just hasn't been fully tested at this point. >> david we will get back to laura, but i want to ask you, who would the democrats -- rather be up against here? with their rather be fighting trump or ron desantis? >> there was only one name, that is donald trump. donald trump -- you can assert ron desantis as the candidate, but that is still donald trump. he has been an acolyte for donald trump for the last two years in his role as governor.

that is what the democratic strategy is, to get out of the way of the republicans making mistakes, whether it is donald trump, ron desantis, chris christie. there will be every ad, every message that will go out, whatever that candidate and donald trump in the same frame. the people will have to deal with that to remove the stain of trump if he is not the nominee. it is most likely he will be. we will see -- stay on our record, the democrats need to get out of the way of the republicans going after each other. >> laura, to what extent will independent voters called me 2024 presidential election? will they go for biden as the least worst option?

to what extent will vote or apathy play a part? we heard some younger people saying they are not excited by trump or president biden. what happens if the turnout is low? >> you highlight two important things. both independence in the middle are more likely to go for biden, trump does -- he is the preferred person for biden to run against. we also have questions of enthusiasm. we have seen both parties put a lot of attention on energizing their base as the key to winning elections. if you have a difficulty doing that, you will have a hard time. >> liz, is the republican base

fired up enough to get behind whichever candidate the gop nominates? >> i think one thing that is interesting to note, outside of the republican party, trump committed voters are the most diehard on the face of the planet. looking at it from within the party, one key difference is that the ron desantis people are more fired up than any of the trumpers. you can find supporters of a donald trump who will concede there are things he has done that have been mistakes. the ron desantis people will not concede. if there were a report about ron desantis having done a poor job of potty training when he was three years old, the santos people would push back and fail to believe that. they are committed. they do not waver.

i guarantee you, someone who says they are a ron desantis voter is guaranteed to turn out. when we were looking at that enthusiasm gap, that is an area where dissent is my to be able to over perform expectations a little bit. based on the fact that his base is revved up. i have been working in this business a long time, i have never seen a group of supporters that are is committed to a candidate as ron desantis voters are. >> who do you think the republican nominee is going to be? >> i've thought or ron desantis since last year. i think he has had a little bit of a wobble. i think the party would be crazy to nominate trump over him. there is enthusiasm to see how he gets it done.

>> the biden team is warning about the dangers of a trump presidency, what would america look like on a -- under a president desantis? >> it wouldn't look like donald trump, the democrats are missing opportunities to hit republicans. donald trump is right wing when it comes to issues like immigration and trade. ron desantis is conservative on economic and social issues. donald trump has been moderate within the public and party on those. democrats need to pay close attention to who ron desantis is, as much as he was dragged over the finish line, and he was endorsed by trump, he is not a carbon copy of trump. he is a lot closer to scott walker or ted cruz. if you look at those people,

that could mean something good or very bad. trying to depict him as a trump carbon cut out is going to be difficult to sell with a lot of voters. he could do it, it's possible. >> david, are the democrats taking desantis seriously? >> i think we are. laura brings up -- liz brings up scott walker, i was going to say who? seven or eight years ago he was the hot republican candidate, and now he is nowhere. ted cruz, those are two candidates who lost their presidential bids. the democrats have to keep our eyes open. i'm going to emphasize that whoever is the candidate, there

is an alignment with donald trump, and we will make sure that everyone knows that, that this is what you are looking at if you vote for this person. it is a another carbon copy of donald trump. that's the main message, to say, let's make sure that we know who we are voting for and vote accordingly. >> laura do you want to come in on anything you've heard? >> i think there is a distinction between similarities in personality versus a policy style. depending on what voters are interested in, they may not see a difference on things like abortion policy, between some of these candidates. in terms of how policy affect lives, that is a worthwhile

discussion, not just for the campaigns, but for the media and american people. >> laura, getting back to biden's age, what happens if he is incapacitated between now and the election? >> i think that is highly unlikely. we will see who we have waiting in the wings. this is why the vice presidential choices are important. not to -- i want to phrase this in a sensitive way. people don't tend to remember mckinley very well. it matters who you put in vp spot. if we look at vice president harris, there are similarities between her in terms of a sense of being moderate than other options, as well as similar

polling to biden. >> david, mortality rates for men of the biden's age are five times higher than 455-64-year-olds. -- than 55-64-year-olds. given that the odds of him serving a second term are not in his favor, we have to be honest here, is kamala harris the right person to be on the ticket for 2024? >> definitely. president biden, when he made the selection for senator kamala harris to be his a running mate in 2020, he is all in. he supports all the work she has done, there have been ups and downs. there has been personnel issues on her staff.

for the most part, vice president harris has been an asset to this ticket. you are going to see more of her, if you saw the video yesterday. there were references, the second gentleman was there. president biden is pushing the team approach because there are different audiences that vice president harris appeals two. he is definitely all in with that. president biden's age, he will own it. he will recognize that this is what 80-year-olds do. he is not going to shy away from the fact that he has decades of experience, he knows world leaders, he knows how they think , he knows how systems work. he is going to execute on those

initiatives going forward. i think the last three years have been very successful from a legislative point of view, for the biden administration, and i think he is going to work on that record. the economy has to continue to improve. >> that's how 80-year-olds are, but as liz pointed out, he's not as sharp as he used to be. he is prone to making the odd gaffe here and there. to which extent is he putting his party at risk by taking this huge gamble and running again? >> if we are talking about gaffes with president biden, he had a problem, a type of responses when he was in the senate two.

gaffes are not necessarily the barometer here. it's going to be important to emphasize, as my colleagues on the program will tell you, this is a very long road from here. not only from a calendar point of view, but if you have gaffes, missteps, look at gerald ford, what he said about poland in the 1976 campaign. this is early days in the campaign. joe knows that. it is going to be, he is ready for the ultramarathon that he will be going on. this is his last election. >> i'm going to ask liz to look at the other side, the point of view -- if you were advising the democrats. this is quite a gamble by a man

of his -- putting up a man of his age to run for a second term. what would your advice to democrats be? >> entirely it's a gamble, i would point out, if we are going to talk about gerald ford, he got his but kicked. that's probably not who i would be pointing to. i don't think democrats have a better choice, do they run it gavin newsom? he has a hard time appealing to a lot of voters. like if they run somebody like joe biden, that is difficult for gavin newsom. it would be interesting if they considered looking at who nominated -- gretchen whitmer. amy coble car -- amy klobuchar would be an interesting candidate. it looks like the minnesota

governor has good economic numbers on his side, he has good approval rating numbers. there are other options. the trouble with those things is those people would have to start from scratch, way behind the eight ball, died and locked this thing up so far that it is impossible. they don't have the name id. i don't think democrats have a better choice. democrats need to stop very soon with this pretending that biden, at the age he is at, has the mental acuity to do the job that he did when he was vice president. anybody who watches him on tv can see that. it is the same as donald trump. neither of these guys are are close to their crime or having the mental ability to do the job. host of us who have parents over the age of 70 see that decline occurring. that's a good chunk of the

electorate. they need to think about it. that is why you have seen kamala harris prominently on display. the difficulty the democrats is that kamala harris appears to be incompetent in and of herself. the administration doesn't trust her, the staff leaks about her, they think she is incompetent. there's a real problem here. >> i can see david disagreeing, i am afraid we are out of time. i wanted to make it the point that you disagree. thanks to all of you. as always, thank you for watching. you can see the program at any time by visiting our website at al jazeera.com. join us on our facebook page. and the conversation continues

on twitter. thank you for being with us, we will see you again. ♪

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