(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) Less than 24 hours after officially launching his reelection campaign, President Joe Biden was under fire on multiple fronts, from Democrat scion Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to MAGA king Donald Trump.
Kennedy Jr., who had already announced his 2024 bid, chastised the incumbent for hiding behind the party’s decision to skip primary debates and its rigging the electoral calendar in ways favorable to Biden.
“The Biden administration is riddled with Neocons, war hawks, Wall Street people, and former corporate lobbyists,” Kennedy Jr. wrote. “That’s what the party elite has become. But I know the rank-and-file — and the American people as a whole — don’t share their priorities. It’s time to return our party and our nation to the people.”
That would include, he said, “a primary election that is honest, civil, and transparent,” adding that he looked “forward to engaging him in debates and town hall meetings.”
The Democratic National Committee announced earlier this month that it would not hold primary debates, while moving the voting schedule to place South Carolina ahead of New Hampshire, a state where Biden has floundered.
Kennedy Jr.’s criticism was harsh for a fellow Democrat, but not nearly as blistering as Trump’s evisceration of a Biden/Harris 2024 ticket.
“You could take the five worst presidents in American history, and put them together, and they would not have done the damage Joe Biden has done to our nation in just a few short years. Not even close,” Trump said in video posted on Truth Social.
That sentiment was reflected in Biden’s slumping poll numbers, where a whopping 70% of Americans said he should skip a reelection bid. Only 26% of respondents to a NBC poll said Biden should run for another term.
Biden announces his re-election bid in the weakest position possible for an incumbent:
-Over 50 percent of Democrats don’t want him to run again
-The vast majority of Americans strongly disapprove of his presidency and policies https://t.co/jvgEJ27HHW
— Garrett Ventry (@GarrettVentry) April 25, 2023
Even Biden’s personal mouthpiece, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, seemed apprehensive about her boss being able to complete another term, if reelected.
"Does the president plan to serve all eight years?"
Press Sec: "That's something for him to decide"
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) April 25, 2023
But Biden, in his campaign announcement, promised he was ready and able to “finish the job,” a claim that prompted many to wonder exactly what job.
“Joe Biden will ‘finish the job,” cracked MAGA Inc. spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. “He will finish our economy with a historic depression, finish our domestic energy industry, and finish our standing as a global superpower. We literally cannot afford 4 more years of this weak man in the White House.”
The Republican National Committee picked up that theme, producing a devastating AI-enhanced video showing a bleak future under another Biden term.
“Thanks to Joe Biden’s socialist spending calamity, American families are being decimated by the worst inflation in half a century,” Trump said, noting that the crisis was just as bad internationally as domestically.
“Russia is teaming up with China. Iran is days away from a nuclear bomb – not even thinkable. Ukraine has been devastated by an invasion that would never, ever have happened if I was president. And Joe Biden has led us to the very brink of World War III,” Trump warned.
“They say Trump was right about everything. Well, I’m not predicting World War III, but I will say this: We’re very close and they’re only talking about nuclear weapons.”
