President Joe Biden never left much doubt that he intended to run for a second term, and on Tuesday morning he made it official. In a video released called “Freedoms,” Biden set the stage for the continuing battle with Republican lawmakers, one in which the question is whether Americans will have “more rights, or fewer.”
Biden’s announcement shows how he is moving on from the specific events and threats related to Jan. 6, and focusing on the erosion of personal freedoms that is happening under this Supreme Court and Republican state legislatures. His announcement makes it clear that the “fight for the soul of America” is ongoing.
“Around the country, MAGA extremists are lining up to take on those bedrock freedoms; cutting Social Security that you paid into your entire life while cutting taxes for the wealthy. Dictating what health care decisions women can make. Banning books and telling people who they can love. All while making it more difficult for you to be able to vote.”
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President Biden continues to press the idea that America can hold onto, and even expand the personal freedoms that should define the nation.
“The question we are facing is whether in the years ahead we have more freedom or less freedom,” said Biden “I know what I want the answer to be and I think you do too. This is not a time to be complacent. That’s why I’m running for reelection.”
Just as he did during his first term, Biden continues to describe America as a good place that faces a threat of making a wrong turn. “I know America,” said Biden in his Tuesday video. “I know we’re good and decent people. I know we’re still a country that believes in honesty and respect.”
As if to immediately test that idea, Republicans have put out a response video—a video that uses AI-generated fake images, and lists a set of fake disasters including China invading Taiwan and officials “closing the city of San Francisco,” whatever that means. The Republican video could not possibly do a better job of defining the stakes if it had been made by Biden’s team, because every moment of it is simply what the president says he is fighting against: hyperbolic fear mongering and massive lies.
The chances that Biden will not just be facing a reelection but a rematch against Donald Trump continue to increase as other Republican candidates have found very little traction with Trump supporters. From the beginning, Republicans seemed to believe that after joining Trump in a platform of hate and conspiracy theories, that energy could be transferred to another candidate when Trump repeatedly failed to grow his base. However, that has so far turned out to be not true, where the core of the Republican Party is now frantically connected to Trump, and Trump only.
While the news media continues to point out President Biden’s age as a potential issue, there has not been any real challenger within the Democratic Party. Now that Biden has made it official, the idea that anyone else would step in seems highly unlikely.
