Biden announces 2024 re-election campaign | First Thing
Announcement sets the stage for an extraordinary rematch with Donald Trump
Good morning.
Joe Biden has announced his 2024 re-election campaign.
Now more than two years into his presidency, Biden has struggled to heal the political and cultural divisions he spoke of after announcing his 2020 presidential bid. A Tuesday launch marks exactly four years since that announcement.
Polling had consistently shown that most Americans, including a majority of Democrats, did not want Biden to seek re-election. That lack of enthusiasm is especially prevalent among young voters, who were skeptical of Biden in 2020 but ultimately turned out in high numbers to help him beat Trump. But most Democrats said they would back Biden if he was their nominee.
Carlson's departure comes less than a week after Fox settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5m. Filings from the lawsuit featured scores of vulgar text messages from Carlson.
Despite repeatedly pushing lies on his show that election fraud took place during the 2020 presidential race, Carlson had texted a Fox News producer that Donald Trump's attorney was the one lying and was wrong in claiming Trump's victory.
You keep telling our viewers that millions of votes were changed by the software. I hope you will prove that very soon," Carlson texted Trump's attorney. You've convinced them that Trump will win. If you don't have conclusive evidence of fraud at that scale, it's a cruel and reckless thing to keep saying."
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