Biden says 'not sure' if he'd be seeking re-election next year if Trump wasn't his rival

· WION

United States President Joe Biden on Tuesday (Dec 5) said he may have skipped next year's re-election bid had it not been for facing his rival Donald Trump, stating that the Republican posed a rare threat to the country. 

"If Trump wasn't running, I'm not sure I'd be running. But we cannot let him win," the 81-year-old Democrat told a 2024 election campaign fundraiser in Weston, Massachusetts.

He then appreciated former Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney for standing up against Trump, who on Sunday (Dec 3) had warned that the United States would be "sleepwalking into dictatorship" if the twice-impeached former president resumes power.

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During the event, he also highlighted Atlantic magazine recapitulating what it stated were the dangers posed by Trump's second term, one of three major US media outlets to issue similar warnings in recent days along with the Washington Post and New York Times. 

Earlier, during a fundraiser in Boston, Biden had mentioned Trump's usage of harsh words during his campaign trail, which also included an instance where he called his opponents "vermin". 

Biden said that his extreme language demonstrated the intense vocabulary used in Germany during the 1930s when Adolf Hitler's Nazis were on the rise.

"Trump's not even hiding the ball anymore. He's telling us what he's going to do," Biden said. "He's making no bones about it."

Biden's comments came after Democratic supporters repeatedly expressed concerns over his age after he turned 81 years old last month.

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The Democrat, who beat Trump in the 2020 presidential elections, the results of which Trump refuses to accept to date, has repeatedly portrayed himself as defending American democracy in next year's vote.

"I don’t think anyone doubts our democracy is at risk again," Biden said earlier on Tuesday.

However, despite facing several criminal trials, including that of election subversion, Trump is slightly ahead in the opinion polls.

"Joe Biden is the real dictator," Trump responded in a post on his conservative Truth Social network on Tuesday.

(With inputs from agencies)