By Emily Drooby
Joe Biden is running for President. The Democrat joins at least 19 other candidates trying to win the party’s nomination. Biden made it official this morning with a video that didn’t talk about policy, instead in it, he ripped into President Trump.
He said, “I believe history will look back on four years of this President and all he embraces as an abhorrent moment in time but if we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation, who we are and I cannot stand by and watch that happen.”
The 76-year old former Vice President under Barack Obama will likely present himself as a middle-of-the road, levelheaded leader for a country deeply divided by politics.
[Related: Catholic Biden At Odds With Some Of Church’s Teachings]
Biden devoted a large portion of his announcement video to criticizing President Trump for his reaction to racial violence in Charlottesville, Virginia back in 2017 when a white supremacist plowed his car into a woman, leading to her death.
In the video he said, “And that’s when we heard the words from the President of the United States that stunned the world and shocked the conscious of this nation he said there were quote, ‘some very fine people on both sides,’ very fine people on both sides?”
Trump didn’t respond to those remarks but did tweet this morning, labeling Biden “Sleepy Joe.”
This is Biden’s third attempt to capture the White House. He failed in 1988 and 2008. If he were to win now, he’d become only the second Catholic, after John F. Kennedy, to be President.
Biden has publicly proclaimed his faith on occasion. He has also been publicly opposed some of the Church’s most fundamental teachings, especially regarding the sanctity of life.
While running for Vice President back in 2012, he said, “I accept my church’s position that life begins at conception. That’s the church’s judgment. I accept it in my personal life. But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews. I do not believe that we have a right to tell other people that women can’t control their body.”
Although Biden was the number two man in the Obama Administration, the former President hasn’t endorsed him and Biden claimed he asked Obama not to.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, another Catholic politician who supports abortion, is singing Biden’s praises.
Governor Cuomo said, “He has the background. I worked with him for years. He has the talent. I think he has the personality for the moment and I think he can unify the Democratic Party.”
Most public opinion polls put Biden as the front-runner in the very large field.