Washington DC, US, Apr 25 (EFE).- United States president Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he is running for reelection in 2024.
“When I ran for president four years ago, I said we were in a battle for the soul of America. And we still are,” Biden said in a video to kickstart his campaign.
His vice president, Kamala Harris, will be his running mate.
Biden chose to announce his re-election bid on Tuesday as it marks exactly four years since he launched his campaign to take on former president Donald Trump and his “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement.
In 2020, Biden focused his campaign on uniting a nation that had become bitterly divided after four years under Trump, and his 2024 campaign appears set to follow a similar tone, although this time with an emphasis on “finishing the job” his administration has started.
He opened the video saying his term had been “a fight for democracy” and protecting Americans’ “sacred” personal freedoms.
Since he took office, Republicans have successfully limited abortion access, voting access and LGBTQ+ rights.
Biden warned that that fight for democracy was still raging: “Around the country, MAGA extremists are lining to take on those bedrock freedoms, cutting social security that you paid for your entire life while cutting taxes for the very wealthy, 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.”
“This is not a time to be complacent,” Biden said. “Let’s finish this job.”
He is widely expected to once again take on Trump, who has already begun his election campaign despite being embroiled in multiple court cases which has already led to him being formally charged in a criminal case in New York.
In addition to Trump, there are five other Republican contenders: former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, conservative radio host Larry Elder and businessman Perry Johnson.
Other Republicans have also hinted at running for president, such as the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, and Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, although neither have formally announced it yet. EFE
wsh-bpm/ks/ch
