It’s now official: Joe Biden, 80, on Tuesday announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election, which could pit him against Donald Trump again.
“I am a candidate for my re-election,” he said in a video posted on Twitter, linking to incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris.
The three-minute message, released at 6 a.m. Washington time, opens with footage of Trump supporters storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Joe Biden hammers home a simple idea: He embodies the fight for freedom and democracy.
For months, he has believed that the Democratic Party “intends” to represent him. But April 25 is far from a trivial date to launch his campaign. Tuesday marks the fourth anniversary of the day Joe Biden last entered the campaign trail, when the Democratic Party plunged into a battle for “America’s soul” and lost a second term to Donald Trump.
“Let’s get the job done!” “, he calls out in his video.
Octogenarian
The Democrat’s main flaw, whose popularity ratings are poor, is his age.
Never before had Americans elected a president so old, nor had a candidate asked him to leave the keys to the White House until he was 86.
Joe Biden certainly exhibits an extraordinary tolerance for juggling between international crises and major reforms.
His trip to Kiev, an unprecedented initiative for a head of state surrounded by the world’s tightest security arrangements, was a stark reminder of his role as architect of the Western response to Ukraine after Russia invaded it.
He never mentions the ambitious reforms that followed his efforts to re-industrialize America, attract cutting-edge technologies, accelerate the energy transition, overhaul infrastructure and “give the middle class some air.”
And yet, in a country where image is everything, and where a candidate must be brimming with vitality, the president cannot hide his age.
His pace is so cautious, his speech is sometimes slurred and the Republican opposition has moments of confusion that call into question his mental acuity.
“Biden is really out of touch and he thinks he deserves another four years in office,” Rona McDaniel, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said Tuesday morning.
In a dystopian video, Republicans imagine what four more years of Biden’s presidency will look like: bombs in Taiwan, looted stores, hordes of immigrants at the borders…
But according to polls, the candidacy of 76-year-old Donald Trump, who has officially been in the running since last November, is no more enthusiastic than Joe Biden, according to Joe Biden.
So if the Democrat defeats his Republican rival once, he hopes he can do it again by highlighting his good-natured personality and his unifying agenda, a man who is synonymous with divisiveness.
His campaign site is already offering mugs, T-shirts and stickers bearing an image of the “Biden-Harris” tandem.
“Dignity”
Joe Biden is counting on his balance sheet and the booming health of the economy and employment. None of this is appealing to American households struggling with a sharp rise in inflation.
Biden’s campaign team, led by the granddaughter of famous activist Cesar Chavez, is betting that improved roads, cheaper drugs and factory openings will be credited to the Democratic nominee within two years.
Since the beginning of the year, Joe Biden has hammered home his desire to restore his “dignity” to the “forgotten” popular America, troubled by globalization, which Donald Trump has managed to woo in part.
One big unknown remains: What chances will Joe Biden have if he faces a younger opponent in November 2024?
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a 44-year-old hard-right, is widely known. But he hasn’t announced himself yet.
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