WASHINGTON, April 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Joe Biden announced Tuesday he is running for re-election in 2024, plunging at the record age of 80 into a ferocious new White House campaign “to finish the job.”
“Every generation has a moment where they have had to stand up for democracy. To stand up for their fundamental freedoms. I believe this is ours. That’s why I’m running for re-election as president of the United States. Join us.
Let’s finish the job,” Biden wrote on Twitter, along with a video.
Vice-President Kamala Harris, 58, will once again be his running mate.
Biden, 80, is already the oldest president in US history and is likely to face questions about his age throughout the campaign. He would be 86 after finishing a second full term in 2029.
“It’s legitimate for people to raise issues about my age,” he said earlier this year. “And the only thing I can say is, watch me.”
Biden faced off against Donald Trump in 2020, defeating the Republican after promising to “restore the soul of the United States”.
“When I ran for president four years ago, I said we are in a battle for the soul of America – and we still are,” Biden said in the three-minute announcement video, which shows the president meeting a diverse range of Americans.
It also features images of the 2021 attack on the US Capitol, when supporters of Trump stormed the building in an effort to overturn his loss to Biden.
Trump has already launched his bid for the presidency, raising the prospect that both men will face each other again on Nov 5, 2024. They are considered favourites to win their nominations although Trump faces competition from the likes of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Biden has long signalled that he planned to stand for re-election with the main question being when he would announce. After spending the weekend with aides at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, he opted to launch his campaign on the fourth anniversary of his 2020 announcement.
Julie Chavez Rodriguez, a senior White House adviser, will serve as his campaign manager.
As yet Biden has no major challengers for the Democratic nomination meaning a smooth path to the candidacy is almost certain.
His approval ratings remain negative by a significant margin but Biden’s hopes of re-election were boosted late last year when his party performed better than expected in the midterm elections.
He also has a series of legislative achievements to tout on the campaign trail, including a $1.2tn infrastructure bill and the marshalling of Western support for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion.
There are currently two other announced candidates for the Democratic nomination – bestselling self-help author Marianne Williamson and anti-vaccine activist Robert Kennedy Jr.
The lack of any formidable rivals in his party allowed Biden to set the timing of his announcement without significant external pressure.
The Republican Party responded to his announcement by describing Biden as “out-of-touch” for thinking he deserves to be re-elected after “creating crisis after crisis” over the last four years.
The party’s national committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said her party was united behind beating him in 2024, adding that US citizens were “counting down the days until they can send Biden packing”.
As is the new tradition in American presidential politics, Joe Biden announced his White House bid in a pre-recorded, slickly produced video that tightly controls the opening message of the new campaign.
The very first images are of the US Capitol, shrouded in tear gas, under attack by Donald Trump supporters on 6 January 2021. The next is of an abortion rights protester at a rally outside the Supreme Court.
This is not a warm tribute to four years of Biden’s presidency – although there will be some of that later – but a stark warning of conflict and danger.
From there, Biden quickly tries to claim the high ground on defending the personal freedoms of Americans – something Republicans frequently claim the president and his fellow Democrats threaten.
He denounces “Maga Republicans” with quick shots of Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green, Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. While re-election campaigns are typically a referendum on the incumbent, from the get-go the Biden team is painting the coming election as one of contrasts.
There are also warnings of Republican threats to the government-run Social Security retirement programme, book-banning efforts and “telling people who they can love”.
The catchphrase that many thought would be the centrepoint of Biden’s campaign, “let’s finish the job”, does not make an appearance until the very end. The message here, instead, seems to be “let’s finish Donald Trump and the Republicans”. — NNN-AGENCIES
