President Joe Biden suggested on Wednesday that he could defeat Donald Trump again in a 2024 rematch while also warning that the former Republican president poses a threat to the country. Biden made the comments during a Rose Garden news conference after meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, one day after launching his re-election bid. When a reporter asked whether he was running for re-election because he believed he was the only one who could beat Trump, Biden replied that he may not be the only one, but he knows the danger Trump presents to American democracy.
Biden’s launch video included imagery from the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by Trump’s supporters, and he included pledges to protect American liberties from “extremists” linked to the former president. Although Biden said he ran in 2020 because of the unique threat posed by Trump, he stated that his decision to run again was not connected to Trump. Biden took a hard look at whether his age of 80 should factor into his decision to run and expected voters to consider the same issue fairly. The president also stated that there was more he needed to do to position the US so that it was “economically and politically secure for a long time.”
Biden’s re-election campaign released its first advertisement for the 2024 cycle, which focuses on gun violence, abortion, and safeguarding democracy. The campaign is spending more than $1 million to air the ad over two weeks on cable channels in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, each of which are key battleground states.
Priorities USA, a Democratic super political action committee (super PAC), announced that it will spend $75 million on digital ads in the same six battleground states. Biden and Democratic groups that use the ActBlue fundraising platform to collect small-dollar contributions raised at least $6 million in the 24 hours following the campaign launch. A group of volunteers who bring in large sums by hosting private campaign functions with well-heeled donors are meeting with Biden on Friday and plan to start hosting events in the coming days. The campaign could raise and spend more than $1 billion before 2024.