President Biden officially announced his bid for reelection Tuesday morning, saying in a solemn launch video that he wanted to “finish the job” he started when the country was racked by a deadly pandemic, a reeling economy and a teetering democracy.
Claiming that his presidency has pulled the country back from the brink on all those fronts, Biden underlined his ambition to turn what he had once pitched as a transitional presidency into something far more transformational.
“The question we are facing is whether in the years ahead we have more freedom or less freedom, more rights or fewer,” Biden said in the video. “I know what I want the answer to be. This is not a time to be complacent. That’s why I’m running for reelection.”
For Biden, 80, the announcement marks a pivotal moment in a political career that has spanned a half-century. The decision may defy the wishes of some Democratic voters clamoring for a different standard-bearer — one who is younger, more progressive and more reflective of the party’s diversity — while also underscoring Biden’s strength among party leaders, including those who believe he has the best chance of defeating Donald Trump or another Republican.
The 2024 race is expected to be the final campaign of a figure who has run seven races for the U.S. Senate and sought the presidency or vice presidency four times. It will shape the legacy of a man who rose from a county council in Delaware to become one of the youngest U.S. senators in history, a partner to the country’s first Black president — and ultimately the 46th president as a pandemic swept the country.
Biden’s announcement moves the United States one step closer to a likely tumultuous 2024 presidential campaign, as former president Donald Trump pushes for a rematch with Biden after more than two years of falsely claiming that he was the true winner in 2020. Trump has already announced his own candidacy and begun exchanging barbs with other Republican hopefuls.
As for Biden, polls suggest that few Democrats are enthusiastic about the notion of his running again, but many believe he may be their best bet for keeping the White House.
Even with Tuesday’s announcement, Biden is expected to hold few explicitly campaign-style events in the near future, as his aides hope that he can remain above the political fray during a hard-fought GOP primary. But he may face rocky political terrain in the coming months as he heads into a bitter fight with Republicans over the government’s debt limit, the Justice Department wraps up a criminal investigation of his son Hunter and the president himself confronts a probe into the classified documents found among his personal belongings.
Biden also has not run a robust national campaign in years, since much of his campaigning in 2020 was curtailed by the covid pandemic, which sharply limited his travel and appearances with crowds.—WP
