Joe Biden offered his starkest rationale to date about why he’s running for re-election, telling donors at a fundraising event in Massachusetts on Tuesday that he’s “not sure” he’d be seeking a return to the White House if not for Donald Trump making a push of his own.
“If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running,” Biden said, according to reporters who attended the fundraiser inside a private home.
A re-match of the 2020 election is expected next fall, with Trump holding a large lead over his Republican challengers, and with Biden having no real Democratic challenger.
Biden has already began pitching himself as the best shot at keeping Trump away from the White House, already suggesting his campaign will be framed around preserving Democracy.
Both Trump, 77, and Biden, 81, have faced criticisms about their age, and whether they’d be able to lead effectively into the latter years of their next term if elected. Either man would become the oldest elected president in U.S. history if they won.
In pitching himself to fat-pocketed donors, Biden added Tuesday that Trump hasn’t tried to hide his intentions of what he’d fight for in a second term—he’d terminate the Affordable Care Act, crack down hard on migrants, and “root out” leftists he described as “vermin” in a speech month.
“Trump’s not even hiding the ball anymore,” Biden reportedly told donors on Tuesday, referencing Trump’s dangerous rhetoric. “He’s telling us what he’s going to do. He’s making no bones about it”
