US President: Will Biden run again?

Former US diplomat Jeffrey Rathke assumes that US President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech was able to reach large sections of the population. He could be tight in the US elections next year and “you should use every opportunity to make the best impression of your own politics, and Biden made that pretty clear,” Rathke told ZDF.

Biden has positioned himself clearly, especially on issues where, according to polls, he is behind the majority of the population. For example, when it comes to tighter gun controls. “It’s clear: Americans are next to it.”

Rathke says that the low approval rate Biden currently has on issues like the economy or immigration isn’t decisive for the 2024 presidential election:

Rathke stressed that approval rates for Biden’s policy are not that good right now, but worse a few months ago. The lower the inflation in the US, the better off the US President will be in the coming months. Biden is betting that unemployment will remain low and the economy will stabilize “especially in voter perception” next year. “That’s the claim. Will it come true? You have to wait for that.”

It’s not yet certain whether the 80-year-old Biden will run for reelection despite his age, but Rathke believes it: “It would be a little weird for a man like Joe Biden who’s been in office for 50 years to suddenly say: I don’t want it anymore. I didn’t see that tonight.”

ZDF reporter Elmar Theveßen followed Biden’s speech, and he also assumes that the President’s words were well received by the US public. Biden looked confident and belligerent.

“He shuffled words and distorted sentences again, but rhetorically got a lot of points against the Republicans by posing as a lawyer for ‘little people,'” Theveßen told ZDF Morgenmagazin. He wants to help them at the expense of the super-rich.

Theveßen stressed that the phrase “Let’s finish this” has been said a dozen times. “What that means is: Let’s finish this and that doesn’t just mean he wants to do it in the second half of his term, but he’s seeing arguments for re-election in what he’s done so far and what he’s just promised for the next few years.”

Biden now wants to tour the US base, first Wisconsin, then Florida. “Depending on the weather, many people in the country – the polls say that very clearly – want to decide whether to compete again in the next few days, even if they really think they’re too old.”

In the last few days, attention has been turned to the President of the USA due to possible spy balloons flying from China over US soil. US diplomat Jeffrey Rathke said the following regarding Biden’s attitude towards China, especially after this incident:

“We’ve known for a long time that Joe Biden has a strong policy towards China. He didn’t get carried away with it by the bubble.” Biden wanted to drop the bubble from the very beginning. “It was pretty much: When is the best time? Where are the risks lowest?”

Therefore, Rathke does not see the incident as a “litmus test or indicator” for Biden’s China policy in the coming years. Communication with Beijing is much more important. Biden told Chinese President Xi Jinping that he is ready for competition but does not want conflict. Rathke said Biden will respond if China violates or challenges US sovereignty.

Biden also emphasized that the United States will establish and develop alliances to better compete with China. “This is probably at the core of Joe Biden’s policy towards China. It will also depend in part on the allies.”