Biden announces 2024 reelection campaign

Military on the streets of San Francisco, an apparent bomb attack in Taiwan. Stark images that feature in a GOP campaign video released Tuesday.

But none of it is real. The ad was “built entirely with AI imagery.” 

The video includes a fake image of a crestfallen President Joe Biden slouched over the Resolute Desk – and comes amid rapid advances in artificial intelligence technology tools that create fake images, video, and audio. 

Misinformation experts had warned that fake content created through AI could be used in the 2024 election campaign.   

The GOP ad includes a watermark on the top left corner with the message “built entirely with AI imagery.”

Responding to the ad, the DNC’s Sam Cornale tweeted, “When your operative class has been decimated, and you’re following MAGA Republicans off a cliff, I suppose you have no choice but to ask AI to help.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre downplayed concerns surrounding President Joe Biden’s age as he announced his reelection campaign Monday.

Jean Pierre acknowledged that the White House “understands” recent polls that show most Americans have little enthusiasm for another Biden run. 

The press secretary then detailed Biden’s legislative accomplishments as proof of him being fit to run. 

“As it relates to the polls again, mindful of the 2024 election, and we understand what the polls are saying. I will say this, in 2022 — let’s not forget — more Americans voted for this president than any other president in history and let’s not forget in 2022 the midterm elections, against all odds … this president had one of the most successful midterm elections for a Democratic president in 60 years.” 

Jean-Pierre initially declined to answer the large majority of questions on Biden’s reelection, citing the Hatch Act, including whether or not Biden will commit to serving all eight years should he win reelection. (The Hatch Act is a 1939 law that aims to keep government functions nonpartisan and prevent certain federal employees from having an impact on elections. )

She later clarified in a tweet: “As you know, we take following the law seriously. So I wanted to be sure that I didn’t go into 2024 more than is appropriate under the law. But I can confirm that if re-elected, @POTUS would serve all 8 years.” 

View the tweet, below:

Vice President Kamala Harris takes part in a discussion about abortion and reproductive rights on the campus of the University of Nevada earlier in April.

Vice President Kamala Harris will make the case for President Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection bid Tuesday at a political rally on reproductive freedom, a Harris adviser told CNN, saying that “finishing the job” is about fighting to protect abortion and other rights facing nationwide restrictions.

Harris will “highlight the extremism of elected Republicans and the unrelenting attacks on women and healthcare providers state by state,” the adviser said.

The rally draws an immediate contrast with Biden, who is likely to shun more campaign-style events in the coming months. Earlier, a Biden adviser previously told CNN, “he’s just gonna keep doing his schedule.”

The event at the vice president’s alma mater Howard University will be a high-profile moment for Harris, crystallizing her role as the administration’s lead messenger in its efforts to safeguard access to abortion on a day where all eyes are on the White House following Biden’s announcement. Abortion rights protests were featured prominently in Biden’s long-awaited reelection campaign announcement video.

But Biden and Harris face significant political headwinds in their bid for a second term, including low approval numbers and an unenthusiastic American electorate. A majority of voters, recent polling shows, does not want Biden to seek a second term, citing age as a major factor.

Still, the president said in his Tuesday video that “the question we are facing is whether in the years ahead we have more freedom or less freedom, more rights or fewer,” a clear indication that issues like abortion will loom large in his argument to American voters. Abortion rights were a motivating issue for Democrats during the 2022 midterm election, and Biden officials hope to utilize the same energy in 2024.

More about the vice president’s remarks: Harris is expected to “describe the moment we’re in,” according to the adviser. She will address what the adviser called “extremist” Republicans who seek to make abortion bans federal law. She’ll also discuss book bans, voting rights and gun safety, the adviser said.

Harris’ Tuesday remarks also come less than a week after the Supreme Court issued a brief protecting access to medication abortion and blocking a court ruling that revoked the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug mifepristone while an appeal works its way through lower courts.

President Joe Biden, who just announced his reelection campaign for president, delivers remarks at North America's Building Trades Unions Legislative Conference at the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC, on Tuesday.

President Joe Biden touted his administration’s economic plan hours after launching his reelection campaign while speaking at the North America’s Building Trades Unions 2023 Legislative Conference in Washington, DC, on Tuesday.

“This feels like coming home, you know,” Biden told the group of union members. “I’m here because there’s no better place to talk about the progress we’ve made together, and wouldn’t have made without you, and that’s not hyperbole, that’s a fact.”

In a campaign style remarks, Biden added that his economic plan is a blue collar blueprint “to rebuild America.”

Biden, speaking to a very receptive room, touted his administration’s legislative achievements, including the Inflation Reduction Act, saying: “We beat big pharma” even “without a single Republican vote.”

“It surprised me. I’ve had more than half a dozen Republicans I used to serve with in the Senate come up to me — and I gave my word, I’d never say who they were, and I never will — ‘Joe, we agree with you, but if I do this, I’ll lose a primary,’ ” he said. “Not a profile in courage, but an acknowledgement.”

The president did not explicitly acknowledge his newly-announced reelection bid — though the audience did by interrupting Biden’s pledge to “finish the job” and deliver a manufacturing boom with chants of “Four more years.”

Biden also repeated criticisms of House Republicans, including Speaker Kevin McCarthy — blasting him for seeking to slash social spending as leverage in ongoing debt ceiling negotiations.

“It’s the same old trickle down, dressed up in MAGA clothing, only worse, because this time they’re saying if they don’t get their way … they’re going to let the country default on the debt,” he said.

CNN’s From DJ Judd contributed to this report.

President Joe Biden speaks at the North America’s Building Trades Unions 2023 Legislative Conference in Washington, DC.

President Joe Biden is speaking in the North America’s Building Trades Unions 2023 Legislative Conference now in Washington, DC, after announcing his 2024 reelection bid earlier Tuesday.

According to the White House, Biden is set to stress his economic agenda to a key part of his base – union members. He he will “highlight his record as America’s most pro-union President, the progress of his Investing in America agenda which is building the economy from the middle out and the bottom up—creating new opportunities for hardworking Americans, and why we must finish the job,” a White House official said on background Monday.

The group represents more than three million “skilled craft professionals” in the United States, as well as Canada. Earlier Tuesday, Biden picked up the endorsement of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW).

As he has in recent weeks, Biden will contrast his economic plans with those of Republicans. The official said Biden will, “discuss the potentially devastating impact of Speaker McCarthy’s push to raise energy prices and send manufacturing jobs overseas by repealing the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax credits in exchange for tax giveaways that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations.”

In the lead up to his bid for a second term, the White House has targeted Republicans, specifically on the economy. In a statement released Monday night, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s debt limit bill would, “cut the American economy off at the knees,” pointing to a Moody’s Analytics analysis of the plan.

“President Biden believes we should be investing in America to revitalize American manufacturing, not holding our economy hostage over disastrous proposals that would lead hundreds of thousands of Americans to lose their jobs,” Jean-Pierre said.

Meanwhile, as CNN previously reported, Vice President Kamala Harris, who has used reproductive rights increasingly as part of her public agenda, will address a rally for reproductive freedom at Howard University – another Biden-Harris friendly crowd and Harris’ alma mater.

The latest CNN Poll of Polls, which includes a new CBS poll, finds that President Joe Biden’s approval rating among all adults stands at 41%, with 56% disapproving.

The 41% approval rating is similar to formal presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter at this stage of their presidencies.

A new survey from CBS News adds to the growing body of polling that shows Biden begins his reelection campaign with tepid support from his own party, largely driven by concerns about his age. The survey also finds, though, that most Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents who plan to vote in next year’s primaries would consider supporting Biden for the nomination.

Conducted in the days leading up to Biden’s announcement, the CBS poll finds that 55% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say that Biden should run for reelection, while 45% say he should not. Broad majorities of those who favor a Biden run point to his performance as President (89%), his ability to defeat Donald Trump (83%) and his personal qualities (79%) as reasons for that support. Those opposed, though, broadly focus on his age (86%) and that it’s time for someone new (77%).  

In the end, 79% of Democrats and Democratic-leaners who say they plan to vote in the Democratic primaries say they would consider backing Biden for the party’s nod.                                      

The findings in the CBS poll are similar to those in other recent polls in showing middling Democratic support for Biden’s reelection bid, including surveys from NBC News, AP-NORC and CNN. 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. officially announces his candidacy for President on April 19 in Boston.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist and environmental lawyer, described himself as a truth-teller who will “end the division” as he launched his bid for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination last Wednesday in Boston.

Kennedy used his campaign launch speech to lambast school and business closures during the coronavirus pandemic and to insist that government and media “lie to us.” 

“My mission over the next 18 months of this campaign and throughout my presidency,” he said, “will be to end the corrupt merger of state and corporate power that is threatening now – threatening now – to impose a new kind of corporate feudalism in our country; to commoditize our children, our purple mountain’s majesty; to poison our children and our people with chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs; to strip-mine our assets; to hollow out the middle class and keep us in a constant state of war.”

The 69-year-old Kennedy is the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy and son of former US attorney general and assassinated 1968 presidential candidate Robert Kennedy. 

President Joe Biden, who entered the 2024 race Tuesday, now joins Kennedy and self-help guru Marianne Williamson in the presidential primary. CNN reported last week that to the confident advisers in the Biden orbit and their wider circle of supporters, the Kennedy challenge only serves to reinforce the president’s strength. 

The Democratic National Committee has made very clear, meanwhile, that the party apparatus is aligned with Biden. No plans for primary debates are underway.

One hurdle likely facing Kennedy as he attempts to win over Democratic voters: his own family. Some Kennedy family members have denounced his views on vaccines. He has also clashed with his mother and siblings over his support for the release of Sirhan Sirhan, the man who shot and killed his father in a moment that changed US history.

He acknowledged in his speech the opposition within his own family to his presidential bid.

“Other members of my family who are not here today – I’m going to make a confession because I know most American families, they never have any differences with each other,” he said. “So when that happens with a family, it’s really huge news, like everywhere.”

Read more about the candidate here.

CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere contributed reporting to this post.

US President Joe Biden speaks during the National Association of Counties legislative conference in Washington, DC, on February 14.

Joe Biden, a career politician with decades of experience in Washington, entered his first presidential term in 2021 in the shadow of an insurrection and pervasive election denialism that has trailed him through his time in office. His 2020 presidential campaign was built on a belief that the election was a battle for the soul of the nation following four years of the Trump administration.

And it’s a theme he’s repeatedly tapped into throughout his time in office, going so far as to deliver an urgent rebuke of former President Donald Trump and those aligned with his attempts to undermine democracy ahead of the 2022 midterms, essentially arguing that the elections were a referendum on election denialism.

Coming out of a once-in-a-generation pandemic and taking office days after a history-making act of public upheaval and violence in Washington, Biden faces two unique challenges coming into the 2024 campaign.

First, the former congressional lawmaker elected to office as the sixth youngest US senator in history will be the first incumbent octogenarian to ask the American public to reappoint him to a term that would end when he’s 86 years old.

CNN reported in August that a campaign is a heavy lift not everyone in the family was initially on board for. But first lady Jill Biden told CNN during an interview in February she was “all for it.”

In October, the president maintained that voters concerned about his age should see his record of accomplishments since taking office.

Biden will also face the unique prospect of possibly facing a former president as his potential challenger.

Trump, who has been indicted on business fraud charges in New York and remains under investigation for his actions as president, would have to defy historical odds to retake the presidency. The only US president to lose a presidential election and then regain the White House four years later was Grover Cleveland. And so far, some Republicans have been tepid about Trump’s presidential bid, especially after how poorly Trump-backed candidates did in key races in last fall’s midterms. Yet at this stage, Trump remains the clear Republican frontrunner, leading his rivals by double digits.

Biden has said he believes he can beat Trump again, but his bid does not allay recent fears from fellow Democrats uncertain about how he’ll fare against a different Republican leading the ticket.

Some top Democrats have privately told CNN they worry this could lead to a more difficult 2024 campaign against a younger, fresher Republican.

Former President Barack Obama touted the Biden administration’s accomplishments so far as he tweeted to mark the launch of Joe Biden’s reelection campaign Tuesday.

“He’s delivered for the American people — and he’ll continue to do so once he’s re-elected,” Obama said in the tweet, which shared Biden’s video announcing his 2024 bid.

See Obama’s tweet:

Sen. Tim Scott speaks with reporters at Alex's Restaurant in South Carolina on April 14.

The question put to South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, hours after he announced plans to run for the Republican presidential nomination, was a simple one: How do you plan to defeat Donald Trump?

Scott spoke for nearly a minute, discussing his mother, his belief in the power of prayer and his “faith in God and faith in our future.” When Fox and Friends co-host Steve Doocy lightly pressed for a more direct answer, Scott shook him off again.

“As opposed to trying to have a conversation about how to beat a Republican,” he said, “I think we’re better off having a conversation about beating Joe Biden.”

Scott, like his fellow GOP presidential contenders, is itching to take on the Democratic president, who is now poised to officially launch his reelection bid. But their first challenge will be getting through the Republican primary – and unseating Trump as the party’s standard bearer.

Even with Trump facing a historic indictment and ongoing questions about his perpetuation of election lies, his challengers are still deeply reluctant to take on the former president, who sits atop almost every poll of the field despite numerous legal issues and the widespread rejection of his chosen candidates in the 2022 midterms. Trump picked up a key endorsement on Monday from the head of the Senate GOP’s campaign arm.

Whether it’s a fear of alienating his core supporters or taking a social media drubbing, this new class of candidates – some officially in, others plotting their entry – has been careful in their remarks about Trump, largely steering clear of sharp criticism in favor of the occasional implicit jab, the kind that often fails to register with the average voter, or subtle indications of opposing policy views.

Trump’s lesser-known rivals, he added, need to use the coming months to introduce themselves to voters and make favorable first impressions before they risk alienating Republican voters by taking on the still-popular former president.

Read more here.

A new NBC News poll is the latest to find former President Donald Trump with a significant lead over other potential candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, while also showing little public appetite for a 2020 rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden in next year’s election.

The poll finds that just 26% of Americans think Biden should run for a second term as president, while 70% say he should not. Among Democrats, 51% say Biden should not run for a second term. That mirrors the findings of other recent polls showing tepid support for a Biden bid for reelection, including an AP-NORC poll released Friday and CNN polling released earlier this month.

In the NBC poll, nearly half of those who oppose a Biden run say that his age is a major reason for that view (48% of those who say he should not run call his age a major reason, 21% call it a minor reason, and 29% say his age is not a reason).

Among those who say they would vote in the Republican presidential primary next year, 46% say they would back Trump out of a list of seven possible candidates, 31% choose Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and 6% former Vice President Mike Pence. All other candidates tested were at 3% or less. A Wall Street Journal poll released Friday also found Trump with a wide lead over DeSantis. But about two-thirds of Republican primary voters in the NBC survey say they would back Trump as either their first or second choice (66%), similar to the share who say the same about DeSantis (64%).

With the NBC poll included, CNN’s Poll of Polls average for Biden’s job approval rating stands at 41% approve to 56% disapprove.

First lady Dr. Jill Biden is keeping to her normal schedule and heading to the classroom today, hours after her husband President Joe Biden launched his reelection bid.

It’s similar to a photo she posted four years ago today when her husband launched his 2020 campaign.

The first lady is expected to be an active campaigner but for the time being has a busy few weeks of official business ahead. The East Wing has been gearing up for an elaborate state dinner for South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife. This evening, the Bidens will visit the Korean War Memorial with the South Korean president as they welcome him for the state visit.

She is also set to attend the coronation of King Charles next month.

On Monday, asked whether there was anything else she was looking forward to this week as she previewed preparations for a state dinner, the first lady laughed.

“The White House Correspondents dinner? Busy week!” she joked.

Julie Chavez Rodriguez and Quentin Fulks.

Efforts to stand up President Joe Biden’s campaign intensified in the days ahead of his announcement.

On Tuesday, he named Julie Chavez Rodriguez, a senior White House official, as his campaign manager, and Quentin Fulks, who ran Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock’s successful 2022 race, as his deputy campaign manager.

While Rodriguez will formally manage the campaign, the effort will also be largely guided from the West Wing, where top aides Anita Dunn, Jen O’Malley Dillon, Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti will also play central roles.

He also named a slate of campaign co-chairs, including Reps. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and Veronica Escobar of Texas; Sens. Chris Coons of Delaware and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois; DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

The operation is expected to be headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, where Biden spends most weekends.

What his day-to-day could look like: Biden’s expected campaign launch will not prompt a sudden change in his day-to-day schedule as commander in chief, according to advisers. Instead, it will come amid a busy week of engagements, a signal of Biden’s approach toward balancing his day job with the job of being a candidate.

What Biden could begin soon is a heavier schedule of fundraising. Democratic officials have laid tentative plans for Biden to begin an active fundraising schedule this summer. And he is expected to meet some major donors to his previous campaign in Washington this week.

Biden had long said he planned to run again in 2024, but he had also underscored frequently that he’s a respecter of fate and that he’d have to confer with his family before deciding to throw his hat into the ring.

He told CNN’s Jake Tapper in October that he planned to process whether to run for reelection after the midterm elections.

Biden’s top advisers revealed last fall that they had been making plans to build out a 2024 run. And Vice President Kamala Harris has consistently said she expects to be Biden’s runningmate if he runs for reelection.

Sen. Chris Coons.

Democratic Sen. Chris Coons, who was named one of the co-chairs of Joe Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign, said he is “optimistic about the 2024 election” after the president announced his bid for reelection.

Coons listed Biden’s actions as president, including passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill and lowering prescription drug prices.

“President Trump talked about rebuilding our infrastructure. President Biden has actually gotten it done — passed a record bill to invest in rebuilding our infrastructure, a bipartisan bill,” Coons said. “President Trump talked about cutting prescription drug prices. President Biden has actually gotten it done, signing into law a bill that will reduce prescription drug prices for millions of Americans.”

Under Biden, America is “stronger abroad and stronger at home,” Coons added.

A series of upcoming challenges, from the ongoing war in Ukraine to a still-uncertain economy, could provide hurdles to President Joe Biden’s reelection. And now that power in Washington is divided, the GOP-controlled House has largely dashed hopes for major legislative accomplishments in the two years ahead of the 2024 vote.

The president’s tenure in office so far has been marked by key triumphs for his colossal policy agenda, including successfully pushing forward and compromising on a broad set of legacy-making, high pricetag priorities with Congress that addressed funding for the Covid-19 pandemic, rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, bolstering domestic semiconductor chip production, and addressing climate change. And under Biden’s watch, the US has attempted to undo Trump’s legacy of diplomacy operating through a nationalist lens, returning to global agreements and reinforcing partnerships with allies who had been jilted by his predecessor.

But broader national challenges – sometimes outside of federal control – along with admitted administration fumbles have also acted as a magnet for GOP criticism and contributed to low national approval ratings throughout Biden’s time in office.

There was the chaotic and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan. Struggles on border policy. Fluctuations in energy prices. Missteps with longstanding allies. Supply chain issues and shortages for everyday items and essentials like Covid-19 tests, baby formula and certain medications. Ongoing legal challenges to policies Biden implemented through executive authority, like student debt forgiveness. And investigations into his family, which have accelerated under the House GOP majority. And, of course, the pervasive inflation woes impacting global markets and Americans’ spending power.

In the coming months, Biden is also facing pressure to negotiate with Republican lawmakers to raise the national borrowing limit to avoid catastrophic default, a prospect that’s already caused anxiety amid an uncertain economic recovery.

In midterm elections last November, Biden’s party was able to defy historical trends by picking up a seat in the US Senate and avert a dramatic red wave in the House of Representatives. Long a self-identified centrist, Biden has mostly won over progressive Democrats through massive climate investments and steps to relieve student debt. But concerns – including from those among his party – remain over his ability to compel enough voters to stay on board for another term.

In this Dec. 12, 1972 file photo Joe Biden, the newly-elected Democratic Senator from Delaware, speaks in Washington, DC.

President Joe Biden, who at 80 has had to confront questions about his age and mental acuity as he launches a reelection campaign for president, once ran a campaign that sharply attacked his opponent’s age.  

In 1972, Biden — then 29 years old and a local Delaware councilman — was running against incumbent Republican Sen. Cale Boggs who was 63 years old, a former two-term governor and the state’s senior senator.

Biden used his opponent’s age against him in a way that was so explicit, one local reporter dubbed his approach, “Dear old dad.”

Biden was running to become one of the youngest people ever elected to the US Senate.

In 1972, advertisements for Biden in local newspapers and on the radio hammered home a line, “he understands what’s happening today.”

The ads targeted Boggs’ age by bringing up past historical topics from Bogg’s “generation,” like Joseph Stalin ruling Russia, jazz musicians using heroin, the development of the polio vaccine, and taxes from the 1940s.

“Cale Boggs’ generation dreamed of conquering polio, Joe Biden’s generation dreams of conquering heroin,” read one newspaper ad. “To Cale Boggs an unfair tax was the 1948 poll tax. To Joe Biden an unfair tax is the 1972 income tax,” read another.

One radio advertisement targeted Boggs as too focused on past threats from Russia, while ignoring domestic issues like crime.

“One of the biggest differences between Cale Boggs and Joe Biden is the things they worry about,” said the radio ad. “In Cale Boggs’ day when Stalin ruled, Americans had visions of the Russian soldiers in our streets. In Joe Biden’s day, Americans have visions of American criminals in our streets. Joe Biden, he understands what’s happening today.”

The approach drew pushback from Sen. William Roth, a Delaware Republican who Biden would work closely with for the next 30 years, according to the News Journal, and commentary from the media at the time.

Biden eventually won that race with the Associated Press declaring, “Biden stressed age to defeat Boggs.”

Read more here.

US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden arrive to speak at a ceremony at the White House in Washington, DC, on April 24.

President Joe Biden is officially a candidate for reelection — but his advisers say don’t expect him to hold campaign rallies in the near future.

The launch and the lack of any immediate campaign rallies mirror then-President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection launch. Like Obama, Biden’s video announcement will set off a mad dash of fundraising and buildout of the reelection infrastructure Biden hopes will win him a second term. But it won’t put Biden on the campaign trail in the near future.

Obama held his first reelection campaign rally in May 2012, 13 months after announcing his bid for a second term.

The wait for a Biden reelection rally could be just as long.

As of now, Biden advisers said Biden does not intend to hold any reelection campaign rallies until Republicans have a presumptive nominee and the general election begins in earnest.

Biden does intend to leverage the power of the incumbency and the bully pulpit that comes with it. While he will forgo rallies, he will continue to leverage official White House events and travel outside of Washington to tout his accomplishments, draw a contrast with Republicans and get out his reelection message.

President Joe Biden has been in the public eye since the 1970s. Here’s a short summary of positions he’s held as a politician over the years:

1970-1972 - Served on the New Castle County Council in Delaware

1972 - Was first elected to the Senate at age 29, defeating Republican Senator J. Caleb Boggs. Wins reelection in 1978, 1984, 1990, 1996 and 2002

June 9, 1987 - Entered the 1988 presidential race, but dropped out three months later following reports of plagiarism and false claims about his academic record

2001-2003 and 2007-2009 - Served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

August 23, 2008 - Is named the vice-presidential running mate of Barack Obama after withdrawing from presidential race

November 4, 2008 - Is elected vice president of the United States

November 6, 2012 - Obama and Biden are reelected, defeating Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan

October 21, 2015 - Says he will not seek the presidency, announcing that the window for a successful campaign “has closed.” His eldest son, Beau Biden, had passed away in May from brain cancer at age 46

April 25, 2019 - Announces he is running for president in a campaign video posted to social media

August 11, 2020 - Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, names Kamala Harris as his running mate

November 7, 2020 - Days after the election on November 3, CNN projects Biden is elected the 46th president of the United States

Read about other key moments from Biden’s political career here.

This could be the most consequential rematch in US history – a president who portrays himself as the champion of democracy against a former president who routinely rejects election results.

Anyone fearing Donald Trump’s return and those who reject Joe Biden’s victory could agree that nothing less than the future of the republic is at stake if Biden and Trump are on the ballot in 2024. Biden explicitly made that case in his announcement video on Tuesday, saying “we still are” in a “battle for the soul of America.”

So why does it feel like an unwanted movie sequel – same actors, predictable new plot twist?

Biden has been a candidate on the national stage in five of the last ten presidential elections. His first and second presidential campaigns sputtered in Democratic primaries in 1988 and 2008. He ran as Barack Obama’s running mate in 2008 and 2012. After sitting out 2016, Biden returned on a mission to unseat Trump in 2020.

Now the oldest-ever president, he is asking voters to put him in the White House until after his 86th birthday.

Trump is already on his third straight election campaign. And let’s not forget he teased runs in 1988, when Biden launched his first failed bid, and also in 2000, when Trump left the GOP for a time, and in 2012, when he led the charge questioning, incorrectly, Obama’s citizenship.

Candidates who run three or more times don’t often successfully become president. One successful example is Ronald Reagan, who like Biden and Trump was technically a senior citizen when he took office. Reagan won his first term on his third try. He also overcame underwater first term approval ratings to win reelection.

In fact, at this point, a little over two years into their presidencies, Biden, Trump and Reagan were all hovering around 40% approval, according to data maintained by Gallup.

Read the full analysis here.

President Joe Biden arrives for an event in the Rose Garden of the White House April 21, 2023 in Washington, DC.

President Joe Biden’s final weekend before the 2024 announcement served as a window into the balancing act to come as he and his top national security officials navigated the complexity of a potentially perilous evacuation of government personnel from the US embassy in war-ravaged Sudan.

Biden has maintained privately that his primary focus is on carrying the duties of the job he was elected to do in 2020.

He gave the order on Saturday to deploy roughly 100 US special operations troops to secure and complete the evacuation of US personnel in Sudan. The operation was successful and no US military and diplomatic personnel were harmed in the roughly hour-long process.

It served as a real-time demonstration of how the next 19 months may unfold for the incumbent running for the White House, where there are no shortage of crises that can turn a message or campaign on its head seemingly overnight.

Right out of the gate, President Joe Biden picked up the endorsement of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) as he prepares to highlight his ties to the labor community at an event later today.

The roughly 775,000 member union supported Biden’s campaign in 2020.

This afternoon, Biden will address the North America’s Building Trades Union 2023 Legislative Conference where he’ll “highlight his record as America’s most pro-union President,” a White House official previewing the event said.

It will mark the president’s first scheduled appearance since launching his reelection bid and follows closely with his 2019 campaign rollout when he held his first public event with a union group in the days after his launch.

In this November 2020 photo, President-elect Joe Biden and Jill Biden wave to the crowd after Biden's address to the nation from the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware. 

The Biden campaign headquarters will be based in Wilmington, Delaware, a decision the president personally signed off on this month, aides told CNN last week, as a nod to the pride of his hometown and a place where he spends most of his weekends.

Also under consideration was Philadelphia, where his 2020 campaign was based until the coronavirus pandemic turned it into a virtual office. But Wilmington won out and will be at least the nominal home base of his reelection effort, with a split-screen to the White House.

The decision to move forward without allowing weeks or months to pass, advisers said, was in part a recognition of how much work is facing the Biden campaign to mobilize and energize voters to turn around the malaise that some Democrats feel about his candidacy.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the Kempsville Recreation Center on February 28 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. 

President Joe Biden launched a reelection bid like none before it on Tuesday with a call for Americans to choose him again to save democracy – less than three years after his defeat of Donald Trump was supposed to restore normality and unite the country.

Biden’s quest for a second term will unfold amid what would normally be deeply unpromising circumstances, with his approval rating languishing in the low 40s, with the country exhausted by successive crises after pandemic isolation ceded to a battle with soaring inflation. Polls show that a majority of voters – and even a majority of Democrats – don’t want him to run again. And the last thing the country appears to want is a Biden rematch with the 45th president, who’s the current frontrunner in the nascent Republican primary race.

But Trump’s strength inside the GOP forms the core rationale for Biden’s campaign. The incumbent reasons that he’s the best bet Democrats have to prevent his predecessor from winning a second term that would surely be even more wild than the first.

Biden is beginning his final campaign after a lifetime in politics from a familiar position of low expectations. But he’s repeatedly defied conventional political wisdom and connected with swing voters by standing as the antidote to Republican extremism. Paradoxically, even though much of his party seems to wish it had an alternative, Biden appears sufficiently strong to ward off the emergence of any significant primary challengers.

The president ignited his reelection bid with the release of a campaign video on Tuesday – four years to the day after launching what was then seen as a long-shot effort to fulfill a White House dream first kindled by an unsuccessful race for the 1988 Democratic nomination.

Amazingly, the same motivation that underwrote his 2020 White House run – Trump’s threat to US democratic institutions and values – will be the foundation of his reelection bid. Biden, in the shadow boxing of an unannounced 2024 bid, has fulminated against “MAGA extremism” and anchored a surprising Democratic showing in the 2022 midterms on the same theme.

It will be months before the first votes are cast in the Republican primary. And it’s more than 18 months before Americans pick their next president. Events yet to occur in the US and abroad could transform the race. Unexpected turns in the lives and careers of both Biden and Trump – and the handful of other candidates vying for the GOP nomination – could change everything. And recent elections have shown that punditry and polling don’t always capture surprising results.

Read the full analysis here.

President Joe Biden speaks about his proposed federal budget for the 2024 fiscal year at the Finishing Trades Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 9.

President Joe Biden formally announced his bid for reelection Tuesday, setting off a battle to convince the country his record merits another four years in the White House and his age won’t impede his ability to govern.

In a video released early Tuesday, Biden framed next year’s contest as a fight against Republican extremism, implicitly arguing he needed more time to fully realize his vow to restore the nation’s character.

“When I ran for president four years ago, I said we are in a battle for the soul of America. And we still are,” he said in the video, which opened with images of the January 6, 2021, insurrection and abortion rights activists protesting at the US Supreme Court.

Biden’s official declaration ends any lingering doubts about his intentions, and begins a contest that could evolve into a rematch with his 2020 rival, former President Donald Trump. He enters the race with a significant legislative record but low approval ratings, a conundrum his advisers have so far been unable to solve. Already the oldest president in history, he also confronts persist questions about his age.

The launch comes four years to the day Biden made his 2020 bid official. That race became a mission to restore the country’s character and prevent Trump from achieving a second term.

Biden’s fourth and final presidential campaign will rest on similar themes. Just as he did in 2020, Biden is making an appeal to the nation’s ideals, particularly with the specter of Trump’s return.  

His announcement video warns against “MAGA extremists” who he says are “dictating what health care decisions women can make, banning books, and telling people who they can love.”

“Every generation of Americans has faced a moment when they’ve had to defend democracy. Stand up for our personal freedoms. Stand up for the right to vote and our civil rights,” he says. “And this is our moment.”

But Biden’s campaign will also ride on promoting the achievements made during the first two years of his presidency — and an argument he needs more time to “finish the job.”

“I know we can,” he says.

Read more about Biden’s 2024 bid here and watch the video announcement below:

White House Intergovernmental Affairs director Julie Chavez Rodriguez stands outside the White House, Wednesday, June 9, 2021, in Washington, DC.

President Joe Biden is poised to name Julie Chavez Rodriguez, a senior White House adviser, to oversee his reelection campaign, two senior Democratic advisers tell CNN.

While Rodriguez will formally manage the campaign, the effort will also be largely guided from the West Wing, where top aides Anita Dunn, Jen O’Malley Dillon, Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti will also play central roles.

Rodriguez, the granddaughter of labor icon Cesar Chavez, has been a longtime Democratic adviser who is close to Biden.

CBS News was the first to report the expected decision.

Top Democratic donors and fundraisers have been invited to meet with President Joe Biden in Washington this week, two people familiar with the matter told CNN.

The huddle with top donors was the latest signal that Biden was ramping up for a reelection campaign.

The top funders of Biden’s last presidential campaign are being invited to join him at an event in Washington next Friday, just days after the four-year anniversary of his 2020 presidential campaign announcement. Details are still taking shape, but the event is expected to be held off White House grounds.

The event is not being billed as a fundraiser but rather an effort to rally donors as Biden gears up for a reelection announcement.

The invitation list includes donors and bundlers who raised more than $1 million for Biden during his 2020 presidential campaign, the two people familiar with the matter said, as well as other top Democratic fundraisers.

Govs. JB Pritzker of Illinois and Phil Murphy of New Jersey have also been invited to attend given their past roles as donors and relationships with the president, one of the people said.

The New York Times first reported news of the invitations.

Quentin Fulks, who managed Sen. Raphael Warnock's re-election campaign in 2022, stands for a portrait outside the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in February.

President Joe Biden will name Quentin Fulks as his deputy campaign manager, according to two people briefed on the matter.

Fulks, who ran Sen. Raphael Warnock’s successful 2022 Senate campaign, will serve as the top deputy for Julie Chavez Rodriguez, who CNN has reported will be named the campaign manager.

Biden is scheduled to appear at a building trade union conference on Tuesday afternoon in his first public appearance after the reelection announcement.

The scheduled remarks in Washington will serve double as an official policy and agenda speech, as well a recognition of his administration’s close ties to labor. The move also echoes Biden’s schedule four years ago Tuesday, when he launched his 2020 campaign in a video before attending a union event.

There are still a number of key personnel decisions to be made in the weeks ahead, the people noted, but the official naming of Rodriguez and Fulks, along with the co-chairs, will serve as markers for a campaign that after months of being built quietly by Biden’s closest advisers, is set to rapidly expand into a full-scale operation in the months ahead in the lead up to 2024.

Biden’s posture, the people said, will in the near term closely track with the messaging and travel efforts he’s pursued in the first quarter of 2023.

Coming up: He is set to host the South Korean president for a State Visit on Tuesday and Wednesday and will travel to Japan and Australia at the end of next month. 

Biden and his top White House advisers will remain intensively engaged on the escalating battle over the debt ceiling with House Republicans.

Still, the campaign’s soft launch will include a major fundraising push and an immediate effort to lay the political groundwork for the months ahead, the people said.

Top Biden donors and bundles have been invited to Washington on Friday and advisers have been mapping out a fundraising and spending plan that CNN has reported could total $2 billion over the course of the election cycle between the campaign and aligned outside groups. 

President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, February 7. His message was one of unadulterated optimism — even in the face of open hostility from some House Republicans.

When President Joe Biden took to the House Chamber in February for his annual State of the Union address, his message was one of unadulterated optimism — even in the face of open hostility.

The spectacle of Biden smiling and offering a pointed riposte through multiple rounds of heckling from some House Republicans was, in many ways, an apt illustration of his presidency and a useful preview of his 2024 candidacy.

A majority of Americans say he hasn’t accomplished much, many Democrats aren’t thrilled at the prospect of him running for reelection and he faces clear disdain from most Republicans.

But Biden powered through. Delivering what was widely viewed as a test run for his reelection announcement, Biden claimed credit for progress made during his first two years in office while stressing the job isn’t finished.

He faced sometimes-unruly Republicans, with whom he spiritedly sparred from the podium on spending cuts. The feisty display drew cheers inside the White House and offered the best preview to date of the energy Biden hopes to bring to the campaign trail soon.

The speech carried a strain of populism rooted in strengthening the middle class – vintage Biden, but delivered at a pivotal moment for his political future.

No president enters his State of the Union wanting to recite a laundry list of accomplishments and proposals, but – almost inevitably – the speech often veers in that direction. Biden’s was no different, even as the president sought to tie everything together with a refrain of “finish the job” — a phrase that appeared 12 times in his prepared text.

Rather than tout any one accomplishment, however, Biden hoped to address the national mood, one that remains downbeat even as the economy improves and the country attempts to return to normal amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Read key takeaways here.