(Washington) Joe Biden, who will soon say whether he will run again in 2024, hoped Thursday that America would get “a fresh start”, by getting rid of the “poison that has infected our political life and pitted us against each other others “.
“I hope we will take a few moments to reflect in silence, find that calm that is at the heart of Christmas and really look at each other, not like Democrats and Republicans […] but as Americans, fellow human beings, to be treated with respect and dignity,” said the American president, presenting his end-of-year greetings from a White House all decorated for Christmas.
“What unites us is so much stronger than what separates us,” said the 80-year-old Democrat, who spoke a lot at the start of his term of office of this need for reconciliation, after the convulsions of Donald Trump’s presidency.
Joe Biden had changed his tone a little in recent months, in favor of a more aggressive message against the Republican opposition.
But as Christmas approached, and as he regained some political momentum, this fervent Catholic returned in a short speech to a register familiar to him, that of empathy and appeasement.
“You can never really know what other people are going through, what is going on in their lives,” he said, inviting his fellow citizens to “spread a little kindness” around them.
Joe Biden, who fifty years ago lost his first wife and their still baby daughter in an accident shortly before Christmas, also pointed out that the holiday season can be a time of “great pain and terrible loneliness” .
The American president, invigorated by several legislative and diplomatic successes, a little revived by midterm elections better negotiated than expected by the Democrats, must say in the coming weeks whether he is running again in 2024.
He has already made it known that the discussions he will have with his family during the holidays will play a key role in his decision.