US elections
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez filed to run for US president on Wednesday, according to Federal Electoral Commission documents, joining a crowded Republican field hoping to upset former president Donald Trump's dominance.
Suarez, 45, is expected to make an official announcement on Thursday in a speech promised to his supporters.
He joins some dozen candidates, all of whom are trailing the twice-indicted former president in the polls. — AFP
Former US vice president Mike Pence launched his presidential campaign Wednesday by framing the Republican nomination as a choice between "reckless" Donald Trump and the Constitution -- arguing that his old boss's bid to overturn the last election should bar him from returning in 2024.
Offering a spirited defense of the Trump White House's policies, the deeply religious former radio talk show host and Indiana governor said he was proud to stand with his running mate "every single day" during the 2017-21 administration.
But he drew the line at the then-president's incitement of a crowd to storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021, as Pence was inside, overseeing the certification of Joe Biden's election win.
"As I've said many times, on that fateful day, president Trump's words were reckless and endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol," Pence told supporters in Ankeny, Iowa.
"The American people deserve to know that on that day, President Trump also demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution. Now voters will be faced with the same choice. I chose the Constitution and I always will." — AFP
Republican former New Jersey governor Chris Christie jumped into the 2024 race for the White House on Tuesday, positioning himself as a political knife-fighter and the only candidate willing to take on frontrunner Donald Trump.
Christie, who filed his paperwork with the Federal Election Commission before an evening announcement in Manchester, New Hampshire, presents a novel challenge as the only Republican contender so far willing to land genuinely damaging blows on the former president.
The 60-year-old Newark native came sixth in New Hampshire seven years ago and eventually endorsed Trump, serving as a key advisor before the pair fell out over the tycoon's refusal to accept his 2020 election defeat. — AFP
With three denizens of the Republican establishment launching presidential campaigns this week, the race for the 2024 nomination has begun to resemble the sprawling 2016 field that proved a huge boon to unfancied outsider Donald Trump.
This time the 76-year-old tycoon is the runaway frontrunner but the conventional wisdom remains the same: the larger the chasing pack, the more likely he is to win by dividing the anti-Trump vote.
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who was trounced by Trump in 2016, is expected to launch a fresh tilt at the White House on Tuesday, a day ahead of ex-vice president Mike Pence and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.
Christie, who will announce in New Hampshire, presents a novel challenge as the only contender so far willing to land genuinely damaging blows on Trump as he makes his case for four years in the Oval Office. — AFP
US President Joe Biden, who at age 80 is seeking a second term in 2024, says in an interview that his advanced age has brought him abundant wisdom.
"I have acquired a hell of a lot of wisdom and know more than the vast majority of people," he tells a reporter from MSNBC, the first interview he's given to the press since officially launching his campaign last week.
"I'm more experienced than anybody that's ever run for the office. And I think I've proven myself to be honorable as well as also effective," says Biden, a Democrat who would be 86 at the end of a second term. — AFP
President Joe Biden launches a new drive to promote a major theme of his expected reelection campaign, touting what he says was a resurgence of US manufacturing -- and warning Republicans could tank the economy.
"I've been determined to make things in this country again, to build American manufacturing capacity," Biden says at Wolfspeed, a semiconductor manufacturing plant in Durham, North Carolina, that recently announced a $5 billion expansion.
Ramping up US capacity in a global race to produce the tiny, high-tech components at the heart of most modern technology has been a Biden priority since he took office in 2021. — AFP
Get the latest updates on US elections where incumbent President Joe Biden is campaigning for a second term.
Photo courtesy of AFP/Oliver Contreras
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