Democratic leaders publicly support Biden, even as they equivocate somewhat on whether the oldest president in U.S. history should try to tack on four more years. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said “if he runs, I’ll support him.” And House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) similarly praised Biden for “doing a good job” as president, even as he responded to a question about Biden’s future much like Nadler did: “Getting into this game this early is not very productive.”

The party’s presumptive nominee in the Wisconsin Senate race, Mandela Barnes, similarly says he’s happy to have the conversation after the midterms. And Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who’s finally given Biden the big party-line bill he’s been seeking for a year, has repeatedly declined to back the president for 2024. Manchin told MSNBC on Tuesday that “I’m not going to talk about it.”

While speculation over Biden’s reelection choice remains a popular Washington parlor game, many Democratic lawmakers are aghast that their colleagues would engage with the question publicly. The timing couldn’t be worse, they say, considering Biden’s on the verge of clinching much of his agenda on manufacturing, climate, taxes, deficit reduction and health care while taking out al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri.

“I don’t understand” why more Democrats aren’t discussing that this “has arguably been the most successful week of his entire presidency,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said. “There’s almost a conventional wisdom of ‘let’s just get in the press knocking the president.’”