After months of suspense, Joe Biden is preparing to officially announce this Tuesday his candidacy for a second term as president of the United States, ignoring the reluctance aroused by his advanced age.
Neither the White House nor the Democratic Party have confirmed it, but the candidacy of the 80-year-old leader is an open secret and several media outlets, citing anonymous sources, assure that he will make it official on Tuesday through a video.
In any case, it is not the first time that his advisers have hinted that there will be an imminent announcement, without it materializing.
If re-elected, the current president would finish his term at the age of 86.
Tuesday is not a random date. It is just four years after Joe Biden’s entry into the campaign that gave him victory over Republican Donald Trump, with whom he could fight again at the polls in 2024.
The 76-year-old tycoon is also a candidate for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential elections and has a chance of winning it despite being prosecuted by a New York court and being the subject of several investigations. He predicts that Biden will not run “because there is something wrong” from “a physical or mental point of view.”
There are no campaign events planned on Biden’s agenda for this Tuesday. The president will, however, deliver a speech before a union on a subject that may become an electoral axis: restoring “dignity” to the “forgotten” popular United States.
That United States that Donald Trump seduced years ago.
In the evening, the President and First Lady Jill Biden will visit the Korean War Memorial in Washington along with their South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife Kim Keon Hee at the start of a state visit that will give the opportunity to discuss foreign policy.
the years do not forgive
Usually US presidents who run for re-election usually win, but this time his age poses a challenge.
In November 2021 and February 2023, Biden underwent checkups that concluded he was in “good health.”
At the moment it seems to have enough energy to face international crises and reforms but the years do not forgive.
The truth is that he walks slower and often gets tongue-tied when speaking in public, two conditions that scare even some of his supporters.
According to an NBC News poll released over the weekend, 70% of Americans, including 51% of Democrats, believe he should not run for a second term.
¿Trump in otro?
Joe Biden knows that according to the polls, which must be interpreted with caution, Trump’s candidacy is not exciting. Neither did yours.
The Democrat is convinced that if he managed to beat him once, he can beat him again thanks to his affable personality and unifying agenda.
One big question mark remains: What would Biden’s chances be if he faced a younger challenger in November 2024, such as 44-year-old Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis?
This rising star of the more conservative American right has not presented his candidacy but believes he has a chance of defeating the Democrat.
“I have what it takes to be president and I can beat Biden,” he declared in March.
It would be Joe Biden’s fourth presidential campaign: before being elected in 2020, he was a candidate in 1988 and 2008.
In 2015, greatly affected by the death of his eldest son, the Democrat, then vice president, did not want to try his luck at the end of Barack Obama’s second term.