President Joe Biden took time off from cuddling up to Chinese dictator Xi Jinping in California this week to announce that he is ready to move out of the White House… if Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calf., just asks.
“I want to talk about Gov. Newsom,” Biden told international leaders Wednesday during a reception for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders gathered in California for a trade confrence.
“I want to thank him. He’s been one hell of a governor, man,” Biden said. “As a matter of fact, he can be anything he wants.”
“He can have the job I’m looking for,” he said about his 2024 Democratic presidential re-election campaign.
In other words: Newsom can have the Democratic nomination and the White House if he desires.
Take a look —
Biden says the quiet part out loud:
"I want to thank Gavin Newsom. He can be anything he wants. He can have the job I'm looking for." pic.twitter.com/frGEKWcall
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) November 16, 2023
Many U.S. voters have negative opinions about the trade deals the Biden administration has been negotiating with China and other Asian countries.
Americans blame the deals for having caused industrial job losses, a prevailing sentiment in the 2016 presidential election that carries over to next year’s 2024 race.
Voters say past trade deals caused the loss of factory jobs that hollowed out their hometowns.
The 2016 presidential election was a landmark event in rejecting trade pacts. Republican Donald Trump walked away from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and, as president, revised the existing trade deal with Canada and Mexico, while raising taxes on a range of imports and starting a trade skirmish with China.
Trade deals offer the prospect of cheaper goods and geopolitical stability, a prospect that was also somewhat undermined as the coronavirus pandemic exposed fragile supply chains that were overly dependent on China.
Biden has struggled to find alternatives to Chinese factories while maintaining the tariffs that Trump imposed on Chinese goods.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article