President Joe Biden announced his re-election campaign Tuesday, insisting he’s running again to “stand up for fundamental freedoms.”
Republicans in the nation’s presidential battleground states say the out-of-touch 80-year-old Democrat has cost Americans their freedoms — and their finances.
Biden’s announcement has been long expected, ending any faintly surviving notion that the octogenarian would hang it up after one very unpopular term in the White House. The idea may seem quaint now, but during his 2020 run, the former vice president’s campaign was hinting he would only serve one term.
“I said we are in a battle for the soul of America, and we still are,” Biden said in a three-minute video, released on the anniversary of his 2019 presidential campaign announcement. “The question we are facing is whether in the years ahead we have more freedom or less freedom. More rights or fewer.”
He wants to “finish the job.”
If he does, Republicans quipped, America as we know it could well be finished.
In Wisconsin, an important battleground state in 2024, the GOP tied Biden to far-left U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), who recently announced her campaign for a third term representing the Badger State.
“While Biden might look like the lone captain, of a sinking ship, Baldwin’s agenda is cut from the same cloth. Baldwin, who endorsed Biden’s first presidential run, has been a rubber-stamp for Biden’s disastrous agenda over 95% of the time,” the Republican Party Wisconsin said in a statement following Biden’s re-election campaign loss.
“Wisconsin households will not forget that the Biden-Baldwin agenda drove the cost of living to 40 year highs — the average Wisconsin household losing nearly $10,000 annually — and drove the national debt to balloon to over $31 trillion.”
The Republican Party said one term was more than enough.
“It’s time for Joe Biden to retire. The American people are going to make sure that happens in 2024!” the GOP tweeted.
It's time for Joe Biden to retire. The American people are going to make sure that happens in 2024! pic.twitter.com/gJk8pV3K8Y
— GOP (@GOP) April 25, 2023
Some of Biden’s closest allies in the left-leaning “mainstream” media are counting the days to a second term.
U.S. News & World Report has proclaimed the “Democrats Comeback Tour,” asserting that the swing states that helped elect Donald Trump in 2016 — Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania — are blue enough to bolster Biden’s chances “against a fractured GOP” in 2024.
If former President Donald Trump is the Republican nominee, Newsweek asserts, Biden could be one of the most unpopular presidents in U.S. history to be elected to a second term.
Biden is very unpopular. RealClearPolitics poll averages show the Democrat’s approval rating on the economy at a scant 38.7 percent. While some polls show Biden with an edge over Trump in a 2024 matchup, many show the former president and Republican frontrunner beating Biden.
Trump’s pollster, John McLaughlin, said Biden’s decision to run again is a “Christmas gift” for Trump. He said Biden was consistently ahead of Trump in the polls in 2020. Early in the race, Trump has a 1.3. percentage point edge, according to RealClearPolitics’ average. That unheard of, the pollster said.
“In our polls, Trump has been leading Joe Biden in the national popular vote since Joe Biden surrendered Afghanistan,” McLaughlin, of New York-based McLaughlin & Associates, told The Star News Network. “One thing you’re supposed to do as commander-in-chief is to portray a strong America. Biden is weak and most Americans know it.”
Still, Trump’s favorability ratings consistently check in lower than Biden’s low numbers.
McLaughlin said the key rating for Trump is his job approval rating. While many voters may not like the former president’s style or social network messages, they have backed Trump’s job performance.
“Seven out of 10 voters think the country is on the wrong track under Biden,” McLaughlin said. “There is a segment of the voters who are never going to to read Trump’s tweets, they’re not going to his rallies, but they are going to vote for him because Biden is a failure.”
Much, of course, is subject to change in the 20 months before Election Day 2024. The Republican Party nomination chase is really just getting underway.
But after two-plus years of historic inflation, the scourge of fentanyl and violent crime, and a broken border, Republicans will have much to campaign on.
“Biden is so out-of-touch that after creating crisis after crisis, he thinks he deserves another four years,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel wrote in a statement.
“If voters let Biden ‘finish the job,’ inflation will continue to skyrocket, crime rates will rise, more fentanyl will cross our open borders, children will continue to be left behind, and American families will be worse off. Republicans are united to beat Biden and Americans are counting down the days until they can send Biden packing.”
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
