(Washington) US President Joe Biden once again slipped a short sentence on Thursday confirming his re-election ambitions, but without disclosing a date for his official entry into the campaign.
To the question “When will you announce (your candidacy for) re-election?” “, he replied without answering, with a slightly smirk:” When I announce it. »
This brief exchange with journalists, broadcast on television, took place in a corridor of Congress, where the 80-year-old Democrat had come to meet the senators of his party.
From small sentence to insinuation, the American president and his entourage now make it clear that, barring a major surprise, the question is no longer whether he will enter the presidential race in 2024, but when.
The American press is counting on an official campaign launch in April, which would correspond more or less to the calendar adopted by some of his predecessors such as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, when the latter themselves ran for a second term.
Joe Biden, 80, is counting on his economic and social record, as well as the contrast with former President Donald Trump, already a candidate, to seduce voters.
It also takes into account the institutional logic in the United States, which dictates that most American presidents run for a second term, and most often successfully.
But the Democrat breaks with all historical precedents and all automatisms because of one criterion: his age, which is also his main handicap with the electorate.
Already the oldest elected president in the United States, Joe Biden, in good health according to his last medical report, would leave the White House at 86 in the event of re-election.