US President Joe Biden formally announced his re-election campaign on Tuesday and asked the citizens to give him another four years to finish what he started, reports The Guardian.
Vice president Kamala Harris, the highest-ranking woman and non-white person in American politics, will be his running mate again.
The president, famously nostalgic, chose to launch his campaign on the fourth anniversary of his return to politics in 2019, when he declared his intention to seek the presidential nomination for a third time. Then, like now, Biden relied on a video to formally declare his candidacy before venturing on to the campaign trail.
The landscape has changed remarkably since his campaign four years ago. The country is still grappling with the scars of a pandemic that claimed more than 1.1 million lives and with inflation that has eased from historic highs but remains painful for consumers. Americans remain deeply divided, convulsed by the loss of federal abortion rights, near-weekly mass shootings and worsening climate disasters.
Among his achievements as president: a mass vaccination campaign; legacy-defining policy achievements on climate and health; and the appointment of justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the US supreme court.
In his campaign video, Biden attacked Donald Trump-supporting “MAGA [Make America Great Again] extremists” taking on Americans’ “bedrock freedoms, cutting social security … dictating what healthcare decisions women can make, banning books, and telling people who they can love, all while making it more difficult for you to be able to vote”. He said that, as in 2020, he was fighting “a battle of the soul of America”.
He also painted an optimistic picture of his country, saying: “I know America. I know we’re good and decent people.” The video ended with the message: “Let’s finish the job!”
Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, had made his intention to seek a second term known for months. But his team felt little urgency to join the race after a better-than-expected performance by his party in the November midterm elections tamped down talk of a primary challenge. Democrats staved off major losses in the House and managed to expand their narrow majority in the Senate, allowing Biden to continue to push through judges and administration officials.
Ultimately, the president chose to wait until after his ancestral tour of Ireland, where a joyous Biden declared that the three-day trip had renewed his “sense of optimism” in what could yet be accomplished at home. Departing the Emerald Isle, he told reporters his plan was to “run again”.
He enters the 2024 campaign cycle dogged by stubbornly low approval ratings and concerns about his age – already the oldest president in American history, Biden would be 86 before the end of a second term.
Only a quarter of Americans - 26% - want to see Biden run again, according to fresh polling by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Roughly half of Democrats believe he should seek a second term, an improvement from the 37% who said the same in its January survey. However, should Biden win the party’s nomination as expected, the majority of Democrats would support him.
Biden made clear in his announcement video that he plans to run on his legislative accomplishments he secured during the first half of his presidency, when Democrats held slim-but-decisive majorities in Congress.
During those two years, Biden signed the American Rescue Plan, delivering widespread financial assistance to households still struggling under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic. He also approved the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law -- which is expected to deliver much-needed improvements to America’s roads, bridges and broadband access in the coming years -- and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major federal gun safety bill signed into law in nearly 30 years.
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
