WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden officially launched his 2024 re-election campaign on Tuesday, saying he is seeking a second term in office to allow him to “finish the job” he started.
Biden made the announcement in a pre-recorded campaign video titled “Freedom”. It opens with scenes from the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and images from an abortion rights protest.
“The question we are facing is whether in the years ahead we have more freedom or less freedom. More rights or fewer,” he said in the video. “This is not a time to be complacent. That’s why I’m running for reelection.”
In the video, he stated his administration has done so much work in the past four years but MAGA extremists are lining up” to take away personal freedom.
“Cutting Social Security that you’ve paid for your entire life while cutting taxes for the very wealthy. Dictating what health care 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.
The video did not name any of Biden’s potential opponents but did show the two frontrunners for the GOP nomination — Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis — embracing for a hug while also flashing images of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz.
“When I ran for president four years ago, I said we are in a battle for the soul of America. And we still are,” Biden said.
Vice President Kamala Harris joins Biden on the ticket and is seen frequently throughout the video. The 2024 campaign will be managed by Julie Chávez Rodríguez, a senior adviser to the president at the White House.
The launch of the 2024 campaign comes four years to the day Biden announced his 2020 campaign and puts to end months of speculation over his plans.
Biden won the 2020 election by defeating Trump and is now possibly set to face the former president once again if Trump wins the Republican presidential nomination. A new NBC News poll found 70 percent of Republicans would support Trump in the GOP primary with DeSantis coming in a close second.
Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel shot back at Biden’s announcement, characterizing him as “out-of-touch.”
“Biden is so out-of-touch that after creating crisis after crisis, he thinks he deserves another four years,” McDaniel said in a statement. “If voters let Biden ‘finish the job,’ inflation will continue to skyrocket, crime rates will rise, more fentanyl will cross our open borders, children will continue to be left behind, and American families will be worse off.”
“Republicans are united to beat Biden and Americans are counting down the days until they can send Biden packing,” she added.
Meanwhile, six in 10 Democrats say they did not want Biden to run again and 51% of Democrats, said in the NBC News poll this month that they did not want him to seek re-election, with half of them citing age as a “major” factor.
The White House has shot down those claims by pointing out Biden’s schedule and the recent doctor’s report saying the 80-year-old is fit to serve as commander-in-chief.
“It’s legitimate for people to raise issues about my age,” he told ABC News anchor David Muir in February. “It’s totally legitimate to do that. And the only thing I can say is, ‘Watch me.’”
Biden will give remarks to the North American Building Trade Union in Washington later Tuesday, his first event since announcing he is running for re-election.
