Biden announces re-election bid, setting up likely rematch against Trump in 2024
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US President Joe Biden announced that he will run for re-election in 2024, plunging into a new campaign "to finish the job".
PHOTO: AFP
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WASHINGTON – US President Joe Biden officially announced his bid for re-election, he set up a likely rematch with former president Donald Trump in 2024.
“When I ran for president four years ago, I said we’re in a battle for the soul of America, and we still are,” Mr Biden said as the video showed a montage of Trump supporters storming the Capitol on Jan 6, 2021.
“This is not a time to be complacent,” the President said. “That’s why I’m running for re-election.”
He took direct aim at his rival as well, saying: “Around the country, Maga extremists are lining up to take... bedrock freedoms away.
“Cutting Social Security that you’ve paid for your entire life while cutting taxes for the very wealthy. Dictating what healthcare decisions women can make, banning books and telling people who they can love. All while making it more difficult for you to be able to vote.”
Maga stands for “Make America Great Again” – Trump’s slogan.
Mr Biden, 80, is America’s oldest president.
Misgivings in the Democrat party over his age are tempered by the notion that, having beaten Trump in 2020, Mr Biden could again prove to be the party’s silver bullet. Trump and his narrow but fiercely loyal base still insist the election was “stolen”, although no evidence of that has stood up in dozens of courts across the country.
Both Trump and Mr Biden will face primary challengers for their parties’ nominations.
No name has emerged from the Democratic Party bench as a credible challenger to Mr Biden.
There remains more than a year, however, until the nomination is decided.
The Republican Party’s convention, which names its candidate, will be held in July 2024, and the Democratic Party’s will be in August 2024.
Trump – who faces one criminal charge and other ongoing investigations that could bring more charges, potentially compromising his viability as a candidate – may have to contend with more serious challengers.
Nevertheless, Mr Biden’s overall approval rating remains low,
And while polls show that most Democrats have favourable opinions of him, they are mixed on his running again, principally because of his age.
According to a poll by NBC News published on Sunday, 70 per cent of Americans and 51 per cent of Democrats do not think Mr Biden should run for re-election in 2024.
The same poll found that 60 per cent of Americans and roughly one-third of Republicans do not think Trump should run again.
Overall, though, 41 per cent of registered voters said they would definitely or probably vote for Mr Biden in the election if he does run. That included 88 per cent of Democrat voters.
A Trump-Biden rematch would certainly be a nail-biter of a race,
In a separate statement, Vice-President Kamala Harris – who will be Mr Biden’s running mate and has adopted the ongoing battle over abortion rights as her cause – attacked Republican “extremists” for wanting to take the country “backward”.
Recent polls by Yahoo News, The Wall Street Journal and Morning Consult show Mr Biden slightly ahead of Trump.
But surveys by The Economist and the Harvard University Centre for American Political Studies have Mr Biden trailing Trump.
For now, though, Democrats will fall into line behind Mr Biden, analysts say.
Despite high inflation and vulnerabilities over crime and the southern border, they cite his track record in terms of big legislation to inject funds into infrastructure, and low levels of unemployment.
On the foreign policy front, Mr Biden has deepened alliances in north-east Asia to counter China,
“A race against Trump is... between a competent President and a chaotic Republican Party,” said Mr Biden’s former press secretary Jen Psaki on the MSNBC show she anchors on Sunday.
“Competence versus chaos,” she said. “As of now, that contrast is kind of playing out on its own.
“Biden did beat Trump last time, but he still has an incredibly tough fight ahead of him.”
Public opinion pollster John Zogby of John Zogby Strategies told The Straits Times: “Among President Biden’s considerable strengths is that he has defeated Donald Trump twice – in 2020 by more than six million votes, and in 2022 by defying history in the (midterm) congressional elections.”
In the 2022 midterms,
“(Mr Biden) has a strong record of accomplishment, including infrastructure; direct relief to individuals, families and small businesses; success in battling Covid-19; major investment in alternative energy; and restoring to a degree the US’ image abroad with allies,” he said.
“And he represents the majority on abortion, guns and the environment, which are the issues Democrats care most about.”
But Mr Biden’s approval ratings are anaemic on issues such as inflation, crime, immigration, foreign policy and the economy in general, Mr Zogby said.
Still, while nothing is certain, “today it looks like 2024 could very well be a reprise of the 2020 Biden-Trump battle”, he added.
