Biden gears up for new showdown with Trump
Analysts, pollsters see national fatigue over a potential repeat of 2020 match
Despite a majority of people in the United States not supporting his run for a second term in the polls, US President Joe Biden announced via video on Tuesday that he will seek the White House again in 2024.
Biden, 80, a Democrat, is gearing up for a possible showdown with his Republican predecessor Donald Trump, 76, who announced on Nov 15 that he plans to seek another term.
Declaring his formal entry into the 2024 campaign, Biden said he decided to run again because the “battle for the soul of America” is continuing. He also referenced “MAGA extremists” in a jab at Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
On the campaign trail in 2020, Biden told voters that his presidency would be a bridge to the next generation, a comment that some interpreted as a signal that he would only serve one term. But he has decided to forge ahead.
Trump released his own video on Monday ahead of Biden’s announcement, who he said has done more “damage” than the “five worst presidents in American history” combined. Trump went after Biden on issues ranging from the strength of the dollar, inflation, border security and the deadly withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in August 2021.
“Banks are failing. Our currency is crashing, and the dollar will soon no longer be the world standard, which will be our greatest defeat in over 200 years,” Trump said.
Analysts and pollsters said US voters are ambivalent about both likely candidates, as there has been somewhat of a national fatigue over a potential Trump-Biden rematch in 2024.
Polls found that the majority of people, to whom Biden has appealed for support to finish the job, show no enthusiasm about his possible second term.
Biden faces a primary challenge from Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who announced last week that he will seek the Democratic nomination.
‘Ambivalent’ public
Trump will also face a primary opponent in Nikki Haley, who was previously governor of South Carolina and US ambassador to the United Nations, and likely former vice-president Mike Pence and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott. But Trump’s biggest potential challenger could be Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has yet to announce whether he will run.
“The American public is ambivalent about both President Biden and former president Trump, but they are the likely nominees of their parties. Once those nominations are confirmed in the summer national party conventions, partisans on both sides will line up behind their candidates,” Cal Jillson, political scientist and historian at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, told China Daily.
“Biden’s suggestion in 2020 that he might serve only one term as president, because many were concerned about his age at that time, was overcome by his sense that there was more he wanted to accomplish and that his conduct in office had shown that age had not slowed him down.”
“No one wants the rematch — the Trump fans because they don’t like Biden, but fear that Trump will lose to him again, and the Biden fans because they have done this once already,” William C. Banks, distinguished professor emeritus at Syracuse University College of Law in New York, said in an email.
Both Biden and Trump could face resistance from the public as a whole in the general election, according to The Associated Press. It released its poll results on Friday which found that only 26 percent of respondents overall want to see Biden run again, and only about half of his own party members think he should do so.
Stanley Renshon, a political scientist at the City University of New York, said the voters’ responses reflect their judgment on Biden’s performance, and Biden’s reelection wish reflects his.
“Trump is viewed as someone who loses, then whines about it. He may also face other criminal indictments that would weaken his campaign. His only advantages are a core of strong support, and that Biden is not popular,” Renshon said.
Biden’s overall approval rating has remained at 42.1 percent as of Tuesday, according to an aggregation of polls by the political website FiveThirtyEight.