Global Courant 2023-04-25 16:23:07
The age of the eighty-year-old Democrat makes his re-election bid a historic and risky gamble for the Democratic Party, which faces a tough electoral map to hold the Senate in 2024.
Biden’s approval ratings have not gone above 50 percent in more than a year and a half. (Biden poll campaign / AP)
President Joe Biden has said he will run for a second White House term in 2024; This will test whether Americans are ready to give the 80-year-old Democrat, the oldest-ever US president, four more years in office.
Biden made his announcement in a masterfully crafted video released Tuesday by his new campaign team, declaring that his mission is to defend American democracy.
It opens with footage from the attack on the US Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021.
“When I ran for president four years ago, I said we were in a war for the soul of America, and we still are,” Biden said. “This is not the time to relax. That’s why I’m running for re-election.”
He said, “Let’s get this done. I know we can do it.”
Biden blasted “MAGA extremists” while pledging to combat efforts by women to limit health care, cut Social Security and ban books, describing Republican platforms as threats to American freedom.
MAGA is short for Trump’s “Make America Great Again” political slogan, which could be Biden’s Republican opponent in the November 2024 election.
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Every generation has a moment when they have to stand up for democracy. To stand up for their basic 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. pic.twitter.com/Y4NXR6B8ly
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) 25 April 2023
The oldest to run the office
In the two years since Biden took over from Trump, he has won Congressional approval of billions of dollars in federal funding for new infrastructure to combat the Covid-19 pandemic and has oversaw the lowest unemployment levels since 1969 in 40 years. High inflation overshadowed the economic record.
Biden’s age makes any attempt at re-election a historic and risky gamble for the Democratic Party, which faces a tough electoral map to hold the Senate in 2024 and is currently in a minority position in the House of Representatives.
In a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on April 19, Biden’s approval ratings were only 39 percent, and there are deep concerns among some Americans about his age; At the end of the likely second term he would have been 86 years old, almost a decade longer than the average US man’s life expectancy.
Doctors declared Biden, who does not drink alcohol and does sports five times a week, “fit for duty” after an examination in February. The White House says his track record shows he’s mentally sharp enough for the rigors of the job.
Vice President Kamala Harris will also join Biden’s quest for 2024.
He ran a mostly virtual campaign to beat Trump in the 2020 election as covid raged, saying he was trying to unify the country, rebuild the economy and better control the virus.
The 2024 race will likely be a very different, more physical event, as the pandemic restrictions are mostly over in the United States.
READ MORE: Biden ‘optimistic’ about midterms as Trump signals comeback in 2024
Source: TRTWorld and its agencies
