LAST UPDATE | 25 Apr 2023
US PRESIDENT JOE Biden has formally confirmed his run for re-election, urging voters to give him more time to “finish the job”.
Biden confirmed his 2024 run in a tweet, saying:
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 reelection as President of the United States. Join us. Let’s 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.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 25, 2023
That’s why I’m running for reelection as President of the United States. Join us. Let’s finish the job. https://t.co/V9Mzpw8Sqy pic.twitter.com/Y4NXR6B8ly
In a three-minute video accompanying the tweet, Biden said: “Personal freedom is fundamental to who we are as Americans. There’s nothing more important. Nothing more sacred.”
The video opens with clips of the 6 January riots at Capitol Hill, as well as footage of pro-choice demonstrators, referring to the US Supreme Court’s decision to end Americans’ right to abortions by overturning Roe v Wade.
Throughout the video Biden refers to likely campaign themes that he has spent the last several months road-testing, including painting Republicans as fighting for tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy while trying to cut social safety net benefits relied on by everyday Americans and roll back access to abortion services.
“Around the country, MAGA extremists are lining up to take those bedrock freedoms away,” Biden is heard saying.
The video also references Republicans rolling back access to abortion and vilifying trans people and the LGBTQ+ community.
This is not a time to be complacent. That’s why I’m running for re-election
The announcement comes on the four-year anniversary of when Biden declared for the White House in 2019, promising to heal the “soul of the nation” amid the turbulent Trump presidency.
“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 video. “The question we are facing is whether in the years ahead we have more freedom or less freedom. More rights or fewer.”
“I know what I want the answer to be, and I think you do too.”
As Americans, we believe in freedom and liberty—and we believe that our democracy will only be as strong as our willingness to fight for it.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) April 25, 2023
That’s why @JoeBiden and I are running for reelection. pic.twitter.com/W7YA0HZfm0
While the question of seeking re-election has been a given for most modern presidents, that has not always been the case for Biden, as a notable swathe of Democratic voters have indicated they would prefer he not run, in part because of his age — concerns that Biden has called “totally legitimate” but ones he did not address head-on in the launch video.
Yet few things have unified Democratic voters like the prospect of Trump returning to power.
Biden’s decision to seek a second term in office sets up a potential re-run of the 2020 election, with his predecessor Trump also running for a return to the White House.
Despite his legal troubles, Trump is currently leading the field of Republican candidates and though Biden does not mention Trump by name the former president is featured in the video.
Biden, who would be 86 at the end of a second term, is betting his first-term legislative achievements and more than 50 years of experience in Washington will count for more than concerns over his age.
He faces a smooth path to winning his party’s nomination, with no serious Democratic rivals. But he is still set for a hard-fought struggle to retain the presidency in a bitterly divided nation.
An NBC News poll released over the weekend found that 70% of Americans, including 51% of Democrats, believed that Biden should not run for a second term. 48% cited concerns over his age as the main reason and another 21% cited that as a minor reason.
Trump, currently at 76, would be older when assuming office in 2025 than Biden was when he was sworn in.
Biden spent his first two years as president combatting the coronavirus pandemic and pushing through major bills such as the bipartisan infrastructure package and legislation to promote high-tech manufacturing and climate measures.
With Republicans now in control of the House, Biden has shifted his focus to implementing those massive laws and making sure voters credit him for the improvements, while sharpening the contrast with the Republican Party ahead of an expected showdown over raising the nation’s borrowing limit that could have debilitating consequences for the country’s economy.
But the president also has multiple policy goals and unmet promises from his first campaign that he is asking voters to give him another chance to fulfil.
“Let’s finish this job. I know we can,” Biden said in the video, repeating a mantra he said a dozen times during his State of the Union address in February.
Biden plans to point to his work over the past two years shoring up American alliances, leading a global coalition to support Ukraine’s defences against Russia’s invasion and returning the US to the Paris climate accord.
But public support in the US for Ukraine has softened in recent months, and some voters question the tens of billions of dollars in military and economic assistance flowing to Kyiv.
The president faces lingering criticism over his administration’s chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of war, which undercut the image of competence he aimed to portray to the world, and he finds himself the target of Republican attacks over his immigration and economic policies.
Additional reporting by PA
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