Biden to make his economic case for 2024 in first speech since launching reelection bid

President Joe Biden will home in on the economy Tuesday in his first speech since he announced he will seek a second term in the White House.

Biden launched his reelection campaign with a video Tuesday morning, four years to the day after he announced he was running for president in the 2020 cycle. Much has changed in the country since his last bid, as former President Donald Trump is no longer in the Oval Office, the world emerged from the worst of the coronavirus pandemic and Biden as an incumbent no longer faces nearly two dozen Democratic opponents.

Still, Biden’s pitch remains largely the same: he argues that a time of uncertainty and division, the country needs an experienced leader at the helm. The president’s launch video Tuesday showed clips of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and he said fighting for U.S. democracy and personal freedoms has “been the work of my first term.” Last time around, he made a similar argument about uniting the country while leaning into the white supremacy rally in Charlottesville.

But Biden also plans to make the economy central to his pitch, starting with his speech Tuesday at the Washington, D.C. Hilton hotel. As voters often judge incumbent presidents on economic conditions, Biden plans to outline what he considers the economic wins of his first term.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic sent markets spiraling and put millions of Americans out of work, Biden had campaigned on building a more equitable system centered on a robust middle class. Tuesday’s speech will detail how his agenda “is bringing manufacturing back, rebuilding the middle class, and creating good-paying union jobs,” according to a White House preview.

The U.S. economy has added millions of jobs during Biden’s first term, but overall it offers mixed indicators for the president. Unemployment earlier this year was at a nearly 54-year low, but elevated inflation is still burdening consumers with high costs even as it starts to ease.

Biden oversaw the passage of several massive economic bills, including a 2021 pandemic relief package and bipartisan infrastructure law. He also signed a bipartisan semiconductor manufacturing plan and a social safety net expansion passed by Democrats in 2022.

Through the plans, Biden aimed to boost U.S. manufacturing, cut costs for consumers and bolster the care economy for workers. But none of the legislation went as far as Biden’s initial vision when he took office.

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/25/joe-biden-2024-reelection-president-to-speak-on-economy.html