Former US Vice President Joe Biden announced on Thursday to run for president in 2020 seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge President Donald Trump.
“The core values of this nation, our standing in the world, our very democracy, everything that has made America—America—is at stake,” Biden said in a video announcing his candidacy.
“If we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation,” Biden said.
Biden has a record of 40 years in the public life and served eight years as Vice President under former President Barack Obama.
His candidacy was expected to be announced but he held it for months before finally announcing it in a video. Biden, as per the several polls, is popular with the most democratic voters.
“He could stand as the principal rival to Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator who has his own large group of committed supporters on the party’s left flank — if, that is, Biden can maintain his current level of support once he goes from hypothetical candidate to real competitor,” said a report in Los Angeles Times.
President Obama has long said that selecting Joe Biden as his running mate in 2008 was one of the best decisions he ever made,” Katie Hill, a spokeswoman for Obama, said in a statement carried by Huffington Post.
“He relied on the Vice President’s knowledge, insight, and judgment throughout both campaigns and the entire presidency,” the paper quoted her as saying.
