Joe Biden announces 2024 re-election bid

Joe Biden has officially announced he will seek a second term in the White House, ending months of speculation and firing the starting gun on a 2024 re-election campaign that could result in a rematch of his 2020 clash with Donald Trump.

In a video posted to social media that sought to depict him as the voice of moderation against rightwing Republicans, the president said: “This not a time to be complacent; that is why I am running for re-election.”

Against images of the January 6 2021 attack on the US Capitol, Biden said the question the US was facing “was whether in the years ahead we have more freedom or less freedom, more rights or fewer”. He added that “around the country . . . extremists are lining up to take on those bedrock freedoms”.

Biden has long signalled that he would seek a second term. He told reporters at the White House on Monday: “I told you I’m planning on running. I’ll let you know real soon.”

The official launch of his campaign quells doubts that the 80-year-old president would run for re-election, and allows him to begin fundraising aggressively to support his campaign apparatus.

Biden is expected to address a conference of building trade unions later on Tuesday at an event in Washington.

Biden is unlikely to face a serious primary challenge from within the Democratic party’s ranks. So far the only Democrats to launch presidential bids are Marianne Williamson, the self-help author, and Robert F Kennedy Jr, an environmental lawyer and scion of the Kennedy family who has become prominent for his anti-vaccine views.

However, Biden is still likely to face an uphill battle at the ballot box in the general election against a Republican opponent. The American electorate is sharply divided, and Biden has battled persistently low approval ratings for much of his presidency.

Trump remains the apparent frontrunner in the Republican primary field, although several challengers, including Florida governor Ron DeSantis, have yet to formally enter the race.

Most national opinion polls suggest that Biden would beat Trump, 76, in a rematch election, but would be more likely to struggle against a different Republican candidate.

Tuesday’s announcement came exactly four years after Biden launched his successful 2020 bid for the presidency. The longtime US senator from Delaware ran unsuccessfully for president in both 1988 and 2008. Barack Obama eventually chose him as his vice-president.

Biden is the oldest serving president in US history. If re-elected, he would be 82 at the start of his second term, and 86 at the end of his White House tenure.