JAKARTA - Incumbent United States President Joe announced his candidacy in the upcoming 2024 presidential election on Tuesday, with a pledge to protect American freedoms from "extremists" associated with former President Donald Trump.
The announcement was made in a slickly produced video released by his new campaign team, opening with imagery from the January 6, 2021 attack on Capitol Hill, Washington by Trump supporters.
"When I ran for president four years ago, I said we were fighting for the soul of America, and we still do," said Joe Biden, launching Reuters on April 25.
"This is not the time to be complacent. That's why I'm running for re-election," he continued.
"Let's get this job done. I know we can," the Democratic Party politician exclaimed.
For his candidacy this time, Joe Biden again took his partner in the last election who was also incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris, whose figure is also featured in the campaign video.
Criticizing the Republican platform as a threat to American freedoms, Biden vowed to fight efforts to limit women's health care, cut Social Security, and ban books to denounce "MAGA extremists".
Every generation has a moment where they have had to stand up for democracy. To stand up for their fundamental 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. https://t.co/V9Mzpw8Sqy pic.twitter.com/Y4NXR6B8ly
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 25, 2023
MAGA is an acronym for Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan, which is vying for the Republican nomination for president. If he wins, he will face Biden again in the November 2024 election.
Unlike Trump, Biden, who is running for the incumbent, is unlikely to face much competition from within his party.
No senior Democrats have shown any sign of challenging him and he has assembled a new council to advise his campaign, including governor J.B. Pritzker from Illinois and Josh Shapiro from Pennsylvania.
In his campaign video, Biden rightly targets Trump and his allies.
"Across the country, MAGA extremists are marching to take away those basic liberties, cutting the Social Security you pay for the rest of your life, while cutting taxes for the very rich, dictating what healthcare decisions women can make, banning books and telling people - people who they can love, while making it harder for you to be able to vote," Biden criticized.
Still, Biden, 80, must overcome Americans' concerns about his age to win re-election, with 44 percent of Democrats saying he is too old to run, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed Monday.
Thirty-five percent, Trump, 76, also faces concerns about his age, with 35 percent of Republicans saying he is too old.
Interestingly, opinion polls show a majority of registered voters do not want Biden or Trump to run again.
Biden's age makes his re-nomination a historic and risky gamble for the Democratic Party, especially if he faces a much younger Republican candidate.
He will be 86 at the end of his prospective second term, nearly a decade higher than the average life expectancy of US men.
另请阅读:
However, doctors said Biden, who sobers and exercises five times a week, was "fit for duty" after an examination in February. Meanwhile, the White House said his records showed he was mentally sharp enough for the rigors of the job.
Separately, in a statement about Biden's candidacy, Trump criticized the president for his record on immigration, inflation, and a tumultuous US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
"American families are being destroyed by the worst inflation in half a century. Banks are broke. We have given up our energy independence, just as we gave up Afghanistan," Trump criticized on his social media platforms.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
