Trump vs Biden: the rematch looks to be on
US president Joe Biden announced on Tuesday that he will run for a second term, arguing that democracy “still faces a profound threat” from Donald Trump, “as he set up the possibility of a climactic rematch” between the two in 2024, says Peter Baker in The New York Times.
Despite having described himself as a “bridge” to the next generation during his 2020 campaign, no formidable challenger has emerged and aides say his decision to ask Americans to trust him with the presidency well into his ninth decade (aged 80, Biden is already the oldest US president in history) was fuelled partly by his belief that he is best-placed to “keep the criminally indicted and twice-impeached former president from recapturing the White House”.
While polls indicate that most Democrats look favourably on Biden – the party’s economic and infrastructure policies are particularly popular, notes The Economist – in a recent NBC News survey, 70% of Americans, including 51% of Democrats, said he shouldn’t seek a second term, most citing his age as a factor. Polls also suggest Biden and Trump – no youngster at 76 – face a “strikingly competitive race”.
Concerns about Biden’s renomination are, however, “trivial compared with the problem facing those Republicans – roughly four in ten – who do not want Donald Trump as the GOP nominee”, says Tom Nichols in The Atlantic Daily. “The GOP as a political institution has functionally ceased to exist at the presidential level” with the nomination process controlled by a “cult of personality”. Trump “bitterenders” are now “the backbone of the party and their fanaticism gives Trump a stable plurality of votes that no other candidate can match”. State and federal indictments could yet force Republicans to support someone else “out of desperation. But for now, the nomination belongs to Trump.”