‘Lots of concerns’ as President Biden announces bid for re-election

President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he would be seeking re-election in 2024, asking voters to give him more time to “finish this job.”

The announcement comes in the form of a three-minute video, which was released on the four-year anniversary of when Biden announced he was running for the White House in 2019, promising to heal the “soul of the nation.”

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Dave Ross talked to New York Times journalist David Fahrenthold about the announcement and discussed what issues he would be facing and what topics would likely come up in the 2024 election.

One of the biggest issues that Farenthold says that Biden, who is now 80 years old, is facing with voters is convincing them whether or not he is fit to do the job. Biden is already the oldest president in history, with his predecessor Donald Trump being the second oldest at 74 years old at the end of his term in 2020.

“There are lots of concerns you see in the polling about his age; people also just know he’s been around in public eyes since 2008, when he was Obama’s running mate…I think [the Democrats] think of this as a rerun of 2020, and so the main obstacle they need to overcome is just like, you know, is Biden healthy enough and young enough to keep the job?” Fahrenthold said. “You know, people are gonna vote for normalcy. But their concern is, is Biden young enough to be normal? Or is he going to be sort of fading while he’s present in his second term?”

If Biden wins the 2024 election, he would be 86 at the end of a second term, but he is betting that his more than 50 years in federal public office will be more important to voters than his age.

A big topic, Fahrenthold said, in the 2024 election will be the economy which has been plagued by increasing inflation and slow recovery out of the COVID-19 pandemic and the corresponding labor and logistics problems.

While the economy is doing better than many experts predicted, the recovery has been slow, and more economic collapse could happen at any time.

“I mean, the economy is not nearly as bad as people had said, it might be by this time [with] inflation seeming to be going down. We haven’t had the big recession that people were talking about,” Fahrenthold said. “But you know, there’s still that threat. And it’s still a lot of time for the economy to tank, and all kinds of things like the Silicon Valley Bank collapse has come out of nowhere — that could happen again.”

There are no immediate challengers that could rival the president in a Democrat primary election, making him the party’s likely candidate.

A notable swath of Democratic voters have indicated they would prefer he not run, in part because of his age, but many Democrats and independents see him as preferable to his likely opponent Trump.

Trump is currently the favorite to run again in the 2024 election for the Republican party, who announced his candidacy back in November. The other front-runner for the Republican nomination is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has not yet announced a bid for president.

The Republican party could face its own problems in the 2024 election, with the reversal of Roe v. Wade rallying Democratic voters against the abortion restrictions pushed by the GOP. The question remains how much Trump will use abortion and his appointments of two supreme court justices responsible for the decision in his campaign.

According to Pew Research Center, a 61% majority of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while only 37% think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.

“I think he’s gonna lean on that again. But I do think there’s a huge risk for him there because the public seems to be not with the Republicans on going further,” Fahrenthold said. “And as you said, nobody’s interested in limiting birth control or abortion pills other than the hardcore Republican Party.”

On Tuesday, Biden named White House adviser Julie Chávez Rodríguez to serve as campaign manager and Quentin Fulks, to serve as principal deputy campaign manager.

“I said we are in a battle for the soul of America, and we still are,” Biden said. “The question we are facing is whether in the years ahead we have more freedom or less freedom. More rights or fewer.”