JUST IN: Biden Formally Announces 2024 Reelection Bid
President Joe Biden formally announced his bid to seek reelection with a video released on social media at 8 am.
The video features him and Vice President Kamala Harris and results in the theme of “Let’s Finish the Job,” a message heard throughout the 2022 midterms.
The three-minute-plus video hits several campaign themes familiar with Biden’s political rhetoric of late. It’s largely a positive message but does warn of “MAGA extremists [that] are lining up to take on those bedrock freedoms, cutting Social Security that you 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.”
The 80-year-old Biden would be the oldest president in US history if elected, taking oath at 82 years of age.
A transcript of the video is below:
Freedom. Personal freedom is fundamental to who we are as Americans. There’s nothing more important, nothing more sacred. That’s from the work of my first term to fight for our democracy. This shouldn’t be retribution to protect our rights, to make sure that everyone in this country is treated equally and that everyone is given a fair shot at making it.
But, you know, around the country, MAGA extremists are lining up to take on those bedrock freedoms, cutting Social Security that you 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.
When I ran for president four years ago, I said, we’re in a battle for the soul of America and we still are. The question we’re facing is whether in the years ahead we have more freedom or less freedom, more rights or fewer. I know what I want the nation to be, and I think you do, too.
This is not a time to be complacent. That’s why I’m running for reelection. Because I know America. I know we’re good and decent people. I know we’re still a country that believes in honesty, respect and treating each other with dignity. That we’re a nation where we give hate, no safe harbor. We believe that everyone is equal, that everyone should be given a fair shot to succeed in this country.
Every generation of Americans have faced the moment when they have to defend democracy, stand up for personal freedom, stand up for the right to vote, and our civil rights. And this is our moment. So if you’re with me, including Joe Biden, I got. Let’s finish this job. I know we can, because this is the United States of America. There’s nothing, simply nothing you cannot do.
