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Image: Rep. Debbie Dingell at a news conference outside the Capitol on Aug.12, 2022.
Rep. Debbie Dingell at a news conference outside the Capitol on Aug.12, 2022.Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images file

Michigan lawmaker won't say if Biden should run in 2024

Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., declined to answer whether she wants to see President Joe Biden run for re-election in 2024.

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Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., declined Thursday to say whether President Joe Biden should run for re-election in 2024, after praising Biden's recent accomplishments.

"He wants to run? Let’s see what he’s gonna do,” Dingell said Thursday on Meet the Press NOW. “It is a lifetime between now and 2024.”

Dingell's comments came after Biden's announcement earlier this week that his administration wants to cancel up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt for non-Pell grant recipients. Dingell did say there are other ways to address the student debt issue without increasing inflation, like free community college or incentivizing career paths where there are shortages.

“I don’t think it solved a lot of the problems,” Dingell said, “I think we’ve got to do more real things. ...We’ve got to work through it.”

Dingell also called on her party to take further action on abortion rights. Energy around the issue has surged following the Supreme Court's recent decision to ended the federal right to an abortion. In Dingell's home state of Michigan, a county prosecutor placed a temporary injunction on a 1931 abortion ban.

"It's very complicated," Dingell said, "but I think the president's hands are tied to some extent because of this ruling about what can be done at the federal level, until we take action in the Congress. "

Dingell said Democrats should have mobilized to place more abortion measures on the ballot this cycle in the event the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

"I wish more people had anticipated that what a lot of us thought was going to happen, would," Dingell said.

Abortion has become a galvanizing issue for Democrats in swing districts. Earlier this week, Democrat Pat Ryan won his Upstate New York special election in part due to his pro-abortion rights stance.