Biden’s 2024 announcement earns mixed reactions
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President Joe Biden gave his first address Tuesday after announcing his reelection campaign in the morning. He spoke at the North America’s Building Trades Unions conference at a Hilton hotel located close to the White House.
The crowd erupted in chants of “Let’s go Joe!” and “Four more years!” as Biden talked about the progress he believes his administration has made.
“Under my predecessor, Infrastructure Week was a punchline. On my watch, we’re making Infrastructure Decade a headline,” he said. “That’s where you come in. We’ve already announced over 25,000 infrastructure projects in 4,500 towns across the country. Union workers will build roads and bridges, lay internet cable, install electric vehicle chargers. Union workers are going to transform America.”
“And union workers are going to finish the job,” he said, ending with words similar to those in his announcement video, which was released Tuesday morning, April 25, the same date he launched his presidential run in 2019.
Biden officially launches 2024 campaign
In the roughly 3-minute long video, Biden talks about “personal freedom” and criticizes “MAGA extremists” who he said “are lining up to take those bedrock freedoms away.”
The clip features Biden’s Republican critics, including Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Florida Gov. Ron. DeSantis and former President Donald Trump.
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According to CNN, the president is not expected to hold a rally any time soon, following in the footsteps of former President Barack Obama, who held his first campaign rally 13 months after launching his reelection bid for president.
Reactions to his reelection bid poured in from both sides of the aisle Tuesday. Obama took to Twitter and said that Biden has “delivered for the American people — and he’ll continue to do so once he’s re-elected,” sharing the president’s video announcement.
Proud of all that @JoeBiden and his administration have accomplished these last few years. He’s delivered for the American people — and he’ll continue to do so once he’s re-elected.
Let’s get to work! https://t.co/eEt7bAueIT https://t.co/uBMyS1QQ0V— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 25, 2023
First lady Jill Biden also posted on social media, saying, “Just like four years ago — I’m off to teach and Joe’s launched his (re-election) campaign! Let’s finish the job!”
According to FiveThirtyEight, Biden’s approval rating stands at roughly 42%. The latest CBS News poll, released Tuesday, found that 45% of registered Democratic voters said Biden shouldn’t run, with age as a top concern for more than eight in 10 voters.
Biden is 80 years old and already the oldest elected president in U.S. history. Still, a majority, around 54%, of Democrats surveyed accept his bid for reelection.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - April 25, 2023
STATEMENT FROM MARIANNE WILLIAMSON ON JOE BIDEN'S 2024 CAMPAIGN LAUNCH:
For those of us committed to Democrats winning the White House in 2024, the president’s campaign announcement today was concerning.
His remark that he has fought so…— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) April 25, 2023
Biden’s 2024 Democratic opponents react
The announcement got a reaction from two of the Democratic candidates who have also declared their candidacies for 2024.
On Twitter, author Marianne Williamson criticized what Biden said in his launch video.
“His remark that he has fought so that everyone ‘is given a fair shot’ contradicts his refusal to fight for a higher minimum wage, permanentize the child tax credit, or side with railroad workers trying to negotiate for sick pay,” she said.
She argued that while Biden says it's “not a time to be complacent” amid threats to democracy, this “does not seem to include standing for the democratic process when it comes to choosing the Democratic nominee.”
Williamson seemed to be referring to the Democratic National Committee’s reported plans to hold no debates, in turn “shoe-horning Biden into the nomination, and Americans most concerned about our democracy must not let this happen,” she said.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who jumped into the race as a Democratic candidate on April 6, said on Twitter that he has “known and liked” Biden for a long time but the two share fundamental differences on “corporate influence in government, censorship, civil liberties, poverty, corruption, and war policy, among others.”
Kennedy Jr. said that he looked forward to the debates in the primary election.
I have known and liked Joe Biden for many years, but we differ profoundly on fundamental issues such as corporate influence in government, censorship, civil liberties, poverty, corruption, and war policy, among others. I look forward to engaging him in debates and town hall…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) April 25, 2023
Williamson and Kennedy Jr. may be trailing behind the president but a recent NBC News poll found that 70% of those asked don’t want a rematch between Biden and former President Donald Trump.
2024 GOP candidates react to Biden’s reelection bid
Trump took the opportunity to boost his fundraising efforts while taking jabs at Biden on Tuesday.
“Joe Biden — the single worst president in American history — is officially running for re-election,” Trump said in an email asking for donations. “Hopeless Joe’s special interest donors are spending MILLIONS of dollars today to launch Biden’s campaign and keep their corrupt puppet in the White House.”
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He blamed Biden and the Democratic party for ordering the raid of Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago, for his indictment, which Trump claims led to a surge in donations, and for censoring Trump’s donation code on mainstream media sites.
Businessman and 2024 GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy also chimed in on Twitter and called Biden’s campaign a “myth.”
“It’s a myth that Joe Biden is actually running for President. He’s not. It’s just the managerial class using Joe Biden as a front to advance its own agenda. To them Biden’s cognitive impairment isn’t a bug. It’s a feature,” he said.
