Joe Biden confirms he is running for a second term in 2024 for the White House as US President
Joe Biden has launched his bid for re-election and signalled how he will attempt to destroy Donald Trump’s hopes of winning the race for the White House.
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The White House has downplayed concerns Joe Biden’s age and unpopularity could cruel his re-election campaign, which the US President kicked off at a union rally by promising to “finish the job” if he wins next year.
And while Mr Biden’s likely opponent Donald Trump blasted him as “the single worst president in American history”, Democrats rowed in behind him on Wednesday after his long-awaited announcement, meaning he is unlikely to face a genuine challenge for the party’s 2024 nomination.
According to a CNN analysis of major national polls, Mr Biden’s 41 per cent approval rating is the second lowest for any president at this point in their first term in the past 70 years, while most voters said they did not want the oldest president in history to run again.
“When it comes to age … we heard that over and over in 2020, and if you look at what the president has done these last two years, he’s been able to deliver,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
“We understand what the polls are saying … Let’s not forget more Americans voted for this president than any other president in history.”
“Let’s not forget, in 2022, the midterm elections … this president had one of the most successful midterm elections for a Democratic president in 60 years.”
Republican congressman Ronny Jackson – who was the White House doctor to Mr Trump and Barack Obama – called on the 80-year-old to take a cognitive test or drop out of the 2024 race, as former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev called him a “desperate grandpa”.
After launching his campaign with a three-minute video, Mr Biden addressed a union function about his economic agenda, which was largely overlooked in the social media pitch that focused on abortion, social security and the threat Mr Trump and his allies posed to America’s democracy.
“Our economic plan is working. We now have to finish the job, but there’s more to do,” he said to chants of “four more years”.
In a preview of his campaign strategy, Mr Biden spruiked his once-in-a-generation infrastructure spending blitz and laws that cut the cost of prescription medicines.
He warned returning to Mr Trump and the “MAGA extremists” – referencing the former president’s “Make America Great Again” slogan – would “take us to a place we’ve never been and where the last guy tried to take us”.
But Mr Trump blamed Mr Biden’s “socialist spending calamity” for inflation hitting the worst mark in half a century and causing a two-year fall in American real wages, as he repeated his lie that his 2020 defeat was because Democrats “cheated and rigged the election”.
“It is almost conceivable that Biden would think of running for re-election,” Mr Trump said.
ALBO STEERS CLEAR OF US PRESIDENTIAL RACE
Joe Biden has a “great love” for Australia says Anthony Albanese, but the Prime Minister has declined to weigh in on the US President’s confirmed re-election bid.
Mr Albanese said Mr Biden was both a “friend of Australia” and a personal friend, adding the President’s upcoming visit to Sydney for the Quad leaders dialogue in May was a “welcome” one for the two countries’ relationship.
But asked about Mr Biden’s announcement he will contest the 2024 US presidential election, Mr Albanese said he would not comment on the internal politics of another country.
“That is a matter for the people of the United States,” he said.
“Can I say this: President Biden will be a very welcome visitor here in Australia.”
Mr Biden will join India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for the Quad meeting in Sydney, but expectations are growing the US leader will also accept an invitation to address parliament in Canberra.
“We will have more to say about (Mr Biden’s) activities while he is here but I very much welcome him,” Mr Albanese said.
The Prime Minister also confirmed in addition to travelling to San Francisco later this year for the APEC summit, he had been invited to the US for further one-on-one talks with Mr Biden.
“We will finalise details for a bilateral visit for me to the US as well,” he said.
“President Biden has a great love for this country and Australia and the United States are the closest of friends and I look forward to welcoming him.”
‘DESPERATE GRANDPA’
US President Joe Biden was lambasted as a “desperate grandpa” after announcing his re-election plan to remain in the White House until the record age of 86.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Moscow’s Security Council, called Biden senile and suggested his access to America’s nuclear codes could cause an unintended world war in an echo of Donald Trump’s response to the 2024 campaign announcement.
“Biden has taken his decision. A desperate grandpa,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram about the 80-year-old.
“If I was in the place of the US military I would quickly produce a fake briefcase with fake nuclear codes in case he wins so as to avoid irreparable consequences.”
Medvedev is one of Russia’s most bombastic critics of the United States, with relations between the two countries at an all-time low since the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Trump, who has repeatedly claimed the war would never have started if not for Biden provoking the aggression through his retreat from Afghanistan, responded to the re-election announcement in a video posted to social media.
“Biden has totally humiliated our Nation on the world stage — starting with the Afghanistan disaster, perhaps the most embarrassing event in the history of our country. It meant so much to our enemies when they watched that horrible retreat,” Trump said.
President Donald J. Trump Releases Web Video Addressing Joe Biden’s Announcement pic.twitter.com/MVPLIhdx24
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) April 25, 2023
“It meant so much to our enemies when they watched that horrible retreat. Russia is teaming up with China. Iran is days away from a nuclear bomb — not even thinkable. Ukraine has been devastated by an invasion that would never, ever have happened if I was president — and Joe Biden has led us to the very brink of World War III.
“They say Trump was right about everything. Well, I’m not predicting World War III, but I will say this: we’re very close and they’re only talking about nuclear weapons.”
Former President Barack Obama, and Trump’s 2016 opponent and Hillary Clinton, both supported Biden’s re-election bid.
“Proud of all that Joe Biden and his administration have accomplished these last few years,” Obama tweeted. ”He’s delivered for the American people — and he’ll continue to do so once he’s re-elected.”
Clinton said “Joe and Kamala are the best people for the job of defending our democracy, fighting for our rights, and making sure everyone has a fair shot.”
The Republican National Committee (RNC) released it said was generated by Artificial Intelligence that predicted the future if Biden is re-elected, including China invading Taiwan, 80,000 migrants streaming over the border with Mexico, and hundreds of US banks shutting down.
“It feels like the train is coming off the tracks,” the AI voice says at the end of the ad.
BIDEN ANNOUNCES RE-ELECTION BID
Mr Biden officially launched his 2024 campaign by painting next year’s election as a new “battle for the soul of America” in what could be an extraordinary rematch with Donald Trump.
Having spent months suggesting he would seek a second term in the White House, Mr Biden confirmed his re-election effort in a three-minute video released exactly four years after mounting his 2020 run.
He also locked in Vice President Kamala Harris as his running mate, despite widespread concerns about her performance supporting the oldest president in history.
“When I ran for president four years ago, I said we were in a battle for the soul of America, and we still are,” Mr Biden said.
“Every generation of Americans has faced a moment when they’ve had to defend democracy, stand up for our personal freedoms, stand up for our right to vote and our civil rights. And this is our moment … Let’s finish this job, I know we can.”
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/V9Mzpw8Sqypic.twitter.com/Y4NXR6B8ly
While he did not name his predecessor, Mr Biden warned “MAGA extremists” – referencing Mr Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan – were “lining up to take on those bedrock freedoms” including access to abortion, social security and voting rights.
“This is not a time to be complacent. That’s why I’m running for re-election,” he said.
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/V9Mzpw8Sqypic.twitter.com/Y4NXR6B8ly
The video included scenes from the January 6 riot at the US Capitol, which was fuelled by Mr Trump’s election fraud lies after he was defeated by his Democrat opponent in 2020.
No serious challengers to Mr Biden – who will visit Australia next month – have emerged for the Democratic Party’s nomination since a surprisingly strong showing in last November’s midterm elections averted a Republican red wave.
But an NBC News poll, released last week, found 70 per cent of Americans believed Mr Biden should not run again, with most citing his age as the key factor. He is 80 and would be 86 by the end of a second term. Only 41 per cent approved of his performance in office.
The same poll solidified Mr Trump as the current frontrunner for the Republican nomination, with 46 per cent of the party’s supporters backing him compared to 31 per cent who supported Ron DeSantis, the Florida Governor who is yet to officially enter the race.
Mr Trump’s poll numbers have improved in recent weeks even as he became the first president in history to be hit with criminal charges over hush money paid to a porn star who claimed to have slept with him.
In a statement prior to the release of Mr Biden’s video, the former president said: “You could take the five worst presidents in American history, and put them together, and they would not have done the damage Joe Biden has done to our nation in just a few short years.”
“With such a calamitous and failed presidency, it is almost inconceivable that Biden would even think of running for re-election,” Mr Trump told his supporters.
“With your support in the election, we will defeat Joe Biden in 2024 … Together, we will all Make America Great Again!”
The Republican Party reacted to President Joe Biden’s announcement by calling him “out of touch.”
“Biden is so out of touch that after creating crisis after crisis, he thinks he deserves another four years,” the Republican National Committee said in a statement.
“If voters let Biden ‘finish the job,’ inflation will continue to skyrocket, crime rates will rise, more fentanyl will cross our open borders, children will continue to be left behind, and American families will be worse off.”
– additional reporting Clare Armstrong
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