During an interview with ABC News, US President Joe Biden said for the first time that he intends to run again for a second term, in the 2024 elections. The announcement had been anticipated a few hours earlier by his wife Jill , who said during a visit to Kenya that her husband was ready for a new term as president despite his advanced age.
In fact, Biden is 80 years old, and when he was elected two years ago he was already the oldest president in American history. If he were elected for a new term, at the end of the four years of presidency he would be 86 years old. His candidacy was taken for granted by many political analysts, but some still speculated that his age could be an obstacle in view of the 2024 elections.
In an interview with ABC News, journalist David Muir specifically asked him whether he factored age into his decision to run again or not. Biden replied like this: «No. But it’s legitimate for people to raise questions about my age. It is absolutely legitimate to do so. And the only thing I can say is “Look at me”».
However, the American political system provides that in order to obtain the presidential candidacy, one passes first through the party primaries, those of the Democrats in the case of Biden. At the moment there are no important candidates, other than Biden: in recent weeks there had been talk of possible candidacies of Vice President Kamala Harris and Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg, but it is very likely that in the end no important politician will challenge Biden, who has a huge popularity in the party and whose victory in the primaries is almost certain.
