The President of the United States, Joe Biden on Tuesday announced that he will be 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,” Biden wrote on Twitter, along with a video which was obtained by Africa Tody News, New York.
‘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 has no meaningful competition from inside the Democratic Party despite a string of significant legislative victories and significant foreign policy problems during his first two years in office.
But he can expect to be the subject of persistent and intense criticism regarding his age in a campaign that could lead to a rerun of the 2020 race against Donald Trump.
By the end of a second term, the seasoned Democrat would be 86 years old. Even though he passed a medical exam in February and was declared “fit” to carry out the duties of the presidency, many people, including many of his own supporters, think he is too elderly.
An NBC News poll released over the weekend found that 70 percent of Americans, including 51 percent of Democrats, believe he should not run.
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Sixty-nine percent of all respondents who said he shouldn’t run cited concerns over his age as a major or minor reason.
Biden likes to answer those concerns by saying, ‘watch me’ – meaning that voters should focus on his policy wins at home and his marshaling of an unprecedented Western alliance to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s invasion.
Africa Today News, New York reports that over the next year and a half, Biden will have all the advantages of incumbency, backed by a united party, while Republicans are only just starting a messy primary season.
Trump, despite becoming the first former or serving president to be criminally indicted – and facing probes into his attempt to overturn his loss to Biden in the 2020 election – is the overwhelming Republican front runner.
On Monday, Trump was quick to pitch in his own criticism of the man who defeated him last time around.
‘With such a calamitous and failed presidency, it is almost inconceivable that Biden would even think of running for re-election,’ he said in a statement.
The most likely Republican challenger to the 76-year-old Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, presents a similarly right-wing figure, though starkly younger at 44.
Biden will underline his foreign policy credentials on Tuesday when he meets with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is starting a state visit to the White House.
Like in 2020, Biden’s video message framed his election bid as a fight to save American democracy from Trump and increasingly alt-right Republicans. However, he also stressed his message of restoring an economy with heavy focus on the manufacturing base and jobs for the middle class.
Later on Tuesday he was expected to deliver an economic address to a union conference being held in Washington.
While not a campaign event, the scheduled theme – “how his investing in America agenda is bringing manufacturing back, rebuilding the middle class, and creating good-paying union jobs” – was set to be at the heart of the Democrat’s 2024 message.
Biden’s approval ratings have not topped 50 percent for more than a year and a half.
However, he has consistently over-delivered when it matters. Supporters say the Democratic Party’s surprisingly strong performance in 2022 midterm congressional elections validated the Biden brand.