His first speech since President Biden Officially announcing his re-election bid to a friendly crowd as he addressed the North American Building Trades Union Legislative Conference at the Washington Hilton near the White House on Tuesday. Mr. Biden took to the stage, another chant of “Let’s go, Joe” and “Four more years” began as he spoke and urged the crowd to let him “finish the job,” his new campaign slogan.
Billed as an official White House event and not a campaign stop, the president shared how he believes his administration’s investments are bringing back manufacturing jobs and rebuilding the middle class, with occasional references to the opposition and his predecessor. Potential 2024 challenger, former President Donald Trump.
“Under my predecessor, Infrastructure Week became a punchline,” Mr. Biden said. “In my eyes, infrastructure has become the headline of a decade, a decade. And that’s where you all come in. No, really. That’s where you all come in. We’ve already announced more than 25,000 infrastructure projects in 4,500 cities across America. And we’re just getting started. , not even closed. Union workers will build roads, bridges, lay internet cables, install 500,000 electric car chargers across America. And union workers are going to transform America. And union workers are going to finish the job!”
On Tuesday morning, the president’s campaign released a three-minute video trying to make the president’s case that he and fellow Democrats want to protect American freedoms as much as possible.
“When I ran for president four years ago, I said we were fighting for the soul of America — and we still are,” Mr. Biden said in the video. “The question we face is whether we have more freedom or less freedom, more rights or less in the years ahead. I know what I want answered. This is no time for complacency. That’s why I’m running. For re-election.”
The Washington Hilton, where Mr. Biden spoke on Tuesday, is the same site where the White House Correspondents’ Dinner will be held on Saturday.
There is Mr. Biden Long his voice of support for the union, a key group that financed and supported his successful 2020 presidential bid against former President Donald Trump. The line, “The middle class built America — and the unions built the middle class,” has become so frequent in his speeches that anyone who watches the president regularly can probably quote it in their sleep. And it’s one Mr. Biden used again Tuesday in his speech.
but Inflation continues to hammer the American budgetSomething Mr. Biden mentioned briefly on Tuesday, while referring to it as a global problem.
“Folks, we have a lot of work to do though,” Mr. Biden said. “I know people are struggling with inflation, too. I grew up in a household where when gas prices went up at the gas station, it was talked about, you felt it in our house, in fact, many of you did. But it’s not just a problem in the United States, It’s a global problem.”
The president also said that the United States must invest aggressively in manufacturing, research and development, new ventures and infrastructure to be competitive with the rest of the world, especially China.
“It’s not about other countries, good or bad. It’s about competition,” the president said.
Rona McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, criticized the president in a statement before the start of his speech.
“Biden wants to ‘get the job done,’ yet he couldn’t name a single accomplishment for re-election in his three-minute video,” McDaniel said. “Americans’ paychecks are shrinking and our communities are less safe in Biden’s America, which is why our Republican nominee will defeat Biden in 2024.”
According to A CBS News poll Released on Tuesday but conducted before Mr. Biden’s announcement, Democrats said they like and approve of the president, though they would greet his re-election announcement with more acceptance than excitement. Among Democratic and Democratic-leaning respondents, 54% described how they felt about the president running again as “accepted,” while 28% chose “confident,” 27% “nervous,” and 22% “excited.”
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