By Yashwant Raj
Washington, April 25 (IANS) US President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday he is seeking a second term, with Vice-President Kamala Harris as his running mate once again.
“The question we are facing is whether in the years ahead we have more freedom or less freedom, more rights or fewer,” Biden said a video announcement. “I know what I want the answer to be. This is not a time to be complacent. That’s why I’m running for re-election.”
Biden, at 80, is already the oldest President in US history and he will be 86 at the end of his second term. His age has raised questions about his suitability for President even among Democratic voters. But they have been rallying to his side since he has decided to seek a second term.
The 2024 run will be his fourth campaign for the White House. He first ran in 1988 and then in 2008, which was won by President Barack Obama, who picked him for his Vice President. Biden was widely expected to run in 2016, at the end of Obama’s second term, but gave it a miss. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won the Democratic nomination that cycle but went on to lose to Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Biden succeeded on his third, in 2020, and now is mounting his fourth, and last. He has been running for office since 1970, which was a city council. In 1972, he ran for the first time for the Senate and won and went on to hold that seat for decades, till he became Vice President.
As sitting President, the Democratic party nomination is his, even though two people have announced so far their desire to seek it as well — self-help author Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy, a nephew of late President John F. Kennedy and son of Attorney General Robert F Kennedy, whose run for the White House was ended by his assassination. Neither of them is capable of mounting a credible challenge to the President.
Biden could potentially face former President Donald Trump in the election that will take place in November 2024. Even though the Republican line-up for the primaries is still shaping up, Trump remains the favorite as he leads his rivals and potential rivals by a wide margin.
Indian-descent Nikki Haley, former US Ambassador to the UN, is among a handful of Republicans who have declared their bid for the party’s nomination, but she has been struggling in the polls.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has not announced yet but is widely seen as the only one who could pose a challenge to Trump.
Trump issued a statement on Monday in anticipation of Biden’s announcement, blasting the latter’s presidency. “With such a calamitous and failed presidency, it is almost inconceivable that Biden would even think of running for re-election,” he said.
The former President went on to repeat his fraudulent claims about losing the 2020 presidential election because of fraud and cheating.
–IANS
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