Kentucky Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear on Monday touted his leadership as an exemplary bipartisan success story amid wild speculation about successors if President Joe Biden drops out of the 2024 race.
When questioned about his reaction to Biden's performance in Thursday's debate, Beshear responded: "The debate performance was rough."
He then added: "But he is still the candidate. Only he can make decisions about his future candidacy, so as long as he continues to be in the race, I support him."
He went on to pitch his own bipartisan Kentucky successes.
'Well, listen, it's flattering when people mention your name in something like that," he said of being mentioned as a candidate if Biden dropped out of the race.
"But I think it's a reflection of all the good things going on in Kentucky. As compared to the rest of the country, the temperature's been turned down here," he said. "Democrats and Republicans all excited about the jobs we're creating, the investment that we're seeing, the record low unemployment, the record low recidivism, decreases in our overdose deaths. Those are all really good things."
"So I think the rest of the country turns to us and says, How can a Democratic governor, a Republican General Assembly, create really good results?' " he continued.
"And I think the answer to that is everything is not partisan. And people are tired of the clashes day in and day out. So when they look at what we have done in Kentucky, they see a better future that's beyond some of the back and forth that we see on the federal level."