Obama’s VP Biden joins US presidential race today
http://www.hrlnews.com/2019/04/obamas-vp-biden-joins-us-presidential.html
Joe Biden, a moderate Democrat, who served eight years as Barack
Obama’s vice president, is set to launch his third run for the White
House on Thursday.
Biden will announce his bid by video, according to a source familiar
with the plans. He then is expected to make his first public appearance
as a candidate on Monday at an event in Pittsburgh featuring union
members, a key constituency.
According to reports, Biden has made his appeal to the disaffected
working-class voters who deserted the party in 2016 a key part of his
political identity,
Biden, 76, had been wrestling for months over whether to run.
His
candidacy will face numerous questions, including whether he is too old
and too centrist for a Democratic Party yearning for fresh faces and
increasingly propelled by its more vocal liberal wing.
Still, he starts as the leader of the pack in opinion polls of a
Democratic field that now will total 20 contenders seeking the chance to
challenge President Donald Trump, the likely Republican nominee, in
November 2020.
Critics say Biden’s standing in polls is largely a function of name
recognition for the former U.S. senator from Delaware, whose more than
four decades in public service includes eight years as President Barack
Obama’s No. 2 in the White House.
As speculation about his bid mounted, Biden faced new questions about
his longtime propensity for touching and kissing strangers at political
events, with several women coming forward to say he had made them feel
uncomfortable.
Biden struggled in his response to the concerns, at times joking
about his behaviour. But ultimately, he apologised and said he
recognised standards for personal conduct had evolved in the wake of the
#MeToo movement.
Trump and his allies seized on the flap, attempting to weaken perhaps his top rival before Biden entered the race.
Even so, Biden was determined to push forward, arguing his
background, experience and resume best positioned him to take on Trump
next year.
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