Bangkok Post

Trump, Biden cross nomination threshold

Stage set for a poll rematch in November

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WASHINGTON: Joe Biden and rival Donald Trump each won enough delegates on Tuesday to clinch their party nomination­s in the 2024 presidenti­al race, networks projected, all but assuring a rematch and setting up one of the longest election campaigns in US history.

The results in four statewide elections on Tuesday, the latest in the months-long march to determine the Democratic and Republican party flagbearer­s, were essentiall­y a foregone conclusion as incumbent Biden and former president Trump had already seen off all primary challenger­s.

Mr Biden crossed the threshold of 1,968 delegates needed when he won Georgia — a US swing state where Mr Trump faces trial over an alleged conspiracy to steal the last election.

Mr Trump’s victory in Washington helped him secure the 1,215 delegates needed to earn the Republican nomination — and to propel him and his Make America Great Again movement back into the cauldron of a presidenti­al race.

The delegates — members of party leadership and other loyalists — will attend the national convention­s where they formally select their party’s presidenti­al nominee.

As the pair now head for a rematch of their 2020 showdown, Mr Biden laid into his challenger in a statement.

“I am honoured that the broad coalition of voters representi­ng the rich diversity of the Democratic Party across the country have put their faith in me once again to lead our party — and our country — in a moment when the threat Trump poses is greater than ever,” he said, assailing his rival’s “campaign of resentment, revenge, and retributio­n.”

Georgia, Mississipp­i, Washington and Hawaii — the Pacific Island state where polls closed much later on Tuesday — were offering a combined 161 delegates on the Republican side, and unopposed Trump needed 137 of those to put the race mathematic­ally beyond reach.

Mr Trump’s remarkable sweep of nearly all GOP state primaries to date led him to essentiall­y secure the nomination far earlier than most candidates in previous campaigns, and it assures an extremely lengthy, nearly eightmonth slog for the White House being contested by the two oldest men ever to begin their presidenci­es.

Mr Trump, who faces multiple criminal indictment­s in cases that to date have failed to derail his 2024 campaign, insisted in a victory statement that the Republican Party is strong and united behind him.

“We are now, under Crooked Joe Biden, a Third World Nation, which uses the Injustice System to go after his political opponent, ME!” he wrote on Truth Social.

Mr Trump is campaignin­g on sweeping reform of what he calls Mr Biden’s “horror show” immigratio­n policies, despite successful­ly pressuring Republican­s to block the toughest package of border security negotiated in Congress for decades.

The issue has become a flashpoint in Georgia — once a Republican state but has become more competitiv­e — due to the murder of student Laken Riley, allegedly by an illegal migrant.

 ?? REUTERS ?? US President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event in Atlanta, Georgia.
REUTERS US President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event in Atlanta, Georgia.
 ?? AFP ?? Republican presidenti­al candidate Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Rome, Georgia.
AFP Republican presidenti­al candidate Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Rome, Georgia.

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