Former United States Vice-President Joe Biden has declared his bid to run for President in 2020.
Biden is a six-term senator, served as President Barack Obama’s deputy for two terms and ran twice unsuccessfully for president – in 1988 and 2008.
In a video announcement, Biden warned that the
“core values of the nation… our very democracy, everything that has made America America, is at stake”.
The 76-year-old enters a crowded race for the 2020 Democratic nomination.
He is up against 19 other hopefuls, including Senators Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Bernie Sanders.
In his announcement, Biden recalled President Donald Trump’s much-criticised response to the deadly Charlottesville white nationalist riots of 2017, saying the US was in a “battle for the soul of this nation”.
“I believe history will look back on four years of this president and all he embraces as an aberrant moment in time,” he said.
“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.”
