US President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump have both passed the delegate thresholds to clinch their parties’ nominations for the election in November.
Both Biden and Trump won primary elections in Georgia, Mississippi, and Washington state on Tuesday. Both men captured nearly all the votes cast so far in what had become token state primaries, along with the primary for Democrats Abroad and the Republican caucus in Hawaii. Biden also won the Northern Mariana Islands primary Tuesday morning, earning eleven delegates.
The result means US voters face a rematch of the 2020 presidential election in eight months’ time. The nominations will be made official at party conventions this summer.
The 81-year-old President said on Tuesday evening that he was “honored” voters had backed his re-election bid “in a moment when the threat Trump poses is greater than ever.”
Citing positive economic trends, he asserted the US was “in the middle of a comeback” but faced challenges to its future as a democracy, as well as from those seeking to pass abortion restrictions and cut social programs.
“I believe that the American people will choose to keep us moving into the future,” Biden said in a statement from his campaign.
President Biden said it best. There's nothing we can't achieve when we act together. pic.twitter.com/njigvIGwkf
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) March 13, 2024
Trump: Biden is the worst president
Trump’s campaign posted a video on X of the former president later Tuesday, shortly after he clinched the nomination.
“This was a great day of victory. Last week was something very special – Super Tuesday – but now we have to get back to work because we have the worst president in the history of [the] country. His name is Joe Biden, sometimes referred to as crooked Joe Biden, and he must be defeated,” Trump says in the video.
🚨🇺🇸#BREAKING: Donald Trump is officially the Republican nominee for President.
— Censored Men (@CensoredMen) March 13, 2024
Trump, 77, remains very popular with the Republican voter base, which has propelled him to victory in primary after primary over well-funded rivals.
His campaign for a second term in the White House has zeroed in on stricter immigration laws, including a pledge to “seal the border” and implement “record-setting” deportations.
Trump has also vowed to fight crime, boost domestic energy production, tax foreign imports, end the war in Ukraine, and resume an “America first” approach to global affairs.
Biden and Trump have glaring flaws
The Associated Press notes that despite their tough talk, both Biden and Trump are grappling with glaring flaws.
Trump is facing 91 felony counts in four criminal cases involving his handling of classified documents and his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, among other alleged crimes.
He’s also facing increasingly pointed questions about his policy plans and relationships with some of the world’s most dangerous dictators. Trump met privately on Friday with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has rolled back democracy in his country.
The 81-year-old Biden is working to assure a skeptical electorate that he’s still physically and mentally able to thrive in the world’s most important job. He’s also dealing with dissension within his party’s progressive base, which is furious that he hasn’t done more to stop Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
Related: President Biden Blasts Donald Trump in State of the Union Address
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