Joe Biden has formally won the Democratic Party nomination to take on Donald Trump in November’s presidential election.
He said on Twitter that he had secured the 1,991 delegates needed and would fight to “win the battle for the soul of the nation”.
He had been the effective nominee since Bernie Sanders withdrew in April.
Coronavirus – and its effect on the economy – and the recent civil unrest are sure to dominate the election.
Mr Biden, who served as Barack Obama’s vice-president, began the primary campaign in faltering style in Iowa and New Hampshire, but then built momentum with a convincing victory in South Carolina.
He then dominated the so-called Super Tuesday contests, taking 10 of the 14 states.
Mr Biden said: “It was an honour to compete alongside one of the most talented groups of candidates the Democratic party has ever fielded and I am proud to say that we are going into this general election a united party.”
Mr Biden, 77, secured the nomination officially after seven states and the District of Columbia held presidential primaries on Tuesday.
It is his third bid for the presidency.
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Associated Press puts his tally at 1,995 delegates, with eight states and three US territories still to vote.
Mr Obama endorsed Mr Biden in April, saying in a video that Mr Biden had “all the qualities we need in a president right now”.
“This is a difficult time in America’s history,” Mr Biden said. “And Donald Trump’s angry, divisive politics is no answer. The country is crying out for leadership. Leadership that can unite us. Leadership that can bring us together.”
Mr Trump has indicated he is eager to take the fight to Mr Biden who he derides as “Sleepy Joe”, and the Democrat has faced a number of difficulties.
He was forced into damage limitation mode after saying African Americans “ain’t black” if they even considered voting for President Trump, later apologising for the “cavalier” comment.
Mr Biden has also faced accusations of inappropriate contact with women. He has described himself as a “tactile politician” and apologised for how people might react. Former staff assistant Tara Reade has accused him of sexually assaulting her in 1993, which he denies.
The US is facing major civil unrest over the death of an unarmed African American man, George Floyd, in police custody, at the same time as unemployment has reached levels unseen since the Great Depression amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Mr Trump and Mr Biden have already clashed on these issues, which look set to dominate the polls in November.
US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has made his first public appearance after more than two months in quarantine amid the Covid-19 crisis.
Wearing a black face mask, the former vice-president laid a wreath at a ceremony in his home state of Delaware.
It was part of event to mark Memorial Day – an annual holiday held on the last Monday of May in honour of those who died serving in the US military.
The date also marks the unofficial start of summer.
“It feels good to be out of my house,” Mr Biden told reporters through his mask, adding: “Never forget the sacrifices that these men and women made. Never, ever, forget.”
Standing alongside his wife Jill, the 77-year-old then presented a wreath of white roses at Delaware’s War Memorial Plaza, before observing a moment of silence to commemorate the military personnel who fought in World War Two and the Korean War.
Mr Biden last made a public appearance about 10 weeks ago. Shortly before defeating his Democratic rival Bernie Sanders in primary elections in Florida, Illinois and Arizona, the presidential candidate was forced to self-isolate because of the spread of coronavirus.
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Following the election results, he gave a webcam speech appealing for Mr Sanders’ supporters from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, where he has continued his virtual campaign.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania also took part in a wreath-laying ceremony as part of Memorial Day commemorations.
The president visited Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia and then the historic Fort McHenry in Baltimore.
Mr Trump, who has been reluctant to wear a face mask but said recently he would do so “where it’s appropriate”, appeared without any face coverings at both events on Monday.
The US has more coronavirus cases than anywhere in the world. It has over 1.6 million known infections and is nearing 100,000 deaths linked to the virus.
All 50 US states have now partially reopened after a two-month shutdown. However, remaining restrictions vary across the country.
Joe Biden has emerged as the front-runner in the Democratic nomination race to take on President Donald Trump in November’s White House election.
But his last viable opponent, Bernie Sanders, is keen to highlight the former US vice-president’s political baggage from a long career as a Washington insider – and tar him as out of touch with the mainstream of the modern Democratic party.
Here, we break down the challenges Mr Biden still faces in the contest to become the Democratic nominee. Some of Mr Sanders’ attack lines are already being picked up the Mr Trump campaign.
Social security
“Here’s the deal: Joe Biden has repeatedly advocated for cuts to Social Security. I’ve fought my whole career to protect and expand it,” Mr Sanders tweeted recently.
Going after Mr Biden’s mixed record of support for the US government’s social welfare programme for retirees has been a theme for the Vermont senator in recent days as he seeks to boost his campaign.
Reform of such so-called “entitlement” programmes has long been a political bugaboo for candidates as well as elected officials, and Mr Biden’s decades-long career has laid bare this point. A senator before his stint as vice-president, Mr Biden argued that Social Security should be subject to government austerity. “When I argued that we should freeze federal spending, I meant Social Security as well,” he said in 1995. “I meant every single solitary thing in the government. And I not only tried it once, I tried it twice, I tried it a third time, and I tried it a fourth time.”
When challenged on this record on the campaign trail, Mr Biden has flat-out denied backing Social Security cuts. His campaign has said that, if elected, a President Biden would expand the programme, paying for it through a tax on the wealthy.
Despite his past comments, opinion polling of Florida voters in March indicated that 59% of them trusted Mr Biden to handle Social Security over Mr Sanders (37%).
Abortion rights
“Joe Biden in the past has voted for what is called the Hyde Amendment, that said that women could not use Medicaid dollars in order to protect their reproductive rights and get an abortion,” Sanders told supporters at a rally.
An exit poll analysis by the political forecast website FiveThirtyEight found that white women were the single largest voting group in the Super Tuesday primaries that turned around Mr Biden’s campaign fortunes.
Given the importance of female voters, it is hardly surprising that Mr Biden’s votes on reproductive health would be scrutinised. Mr Sanders has honed in on the former vice-president’s positions on abortion, which have transformed over the past few decades. As a senator in 1981, he voted to support an amendment that would have allowed states to overturn the landmark Supreme Court ruling guaranteeing the US right to abortion. As recently as last year, he said he still supported the Hyde Amendment (which forbids public money from being used for abortions), but reversed course after it became clear he was the only Democrat in the field who did so.
Abortion access is an important issue for Democratic women, but Mr Sanders’ denunciation of Mr Biden’s record appears to go only so far. A YouGov/Economist poll finds that support from women overall for the former vice-president is slightly higher than for the Vermont senator. Young women under 30 back Mr Sanders. Those older than 45 back Mr Biden – and it is this group that votes more reliably.
Trade deals
“Does anybody think that Joe can go to Michigan or Wisconsin or Indiana or Minnesota and say vote for me, I voted for those terrible trade agreements?” Mr Sanders asked supporters in March. “I don’t think so.”
The anti-free trade line worked for Mr Sanders in 2016, when the same criticism of Hillary Clinton helped the senator, a protectionist and a populist, eke out a surprise win in Michigan over his rival. The medication should be taken once a day, it has received cialis from india approval from the FDA. You will need levitra uk djpaulkom.tv eight hours of sleep every day. Some websites go get viagra australia as far as giving free trials. Type 2 diabetes is mainly caused due to erectile dysfunction and that can be also treated by these capsules. free sample of viagra http://djpaulkom.tv/photos-killjoy-club-tattoos-tat-our-name-on-it-so-we-know-its-real/
Mr Biden has said he stands by his vote for the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), which critics say hollowed out manufacturing in the US. However, Mr Biden has argued that he is a “fair trader” who believes that “we should treat other countries in a way they treat us”, rather than a “free trader”.
The argument against Mr Biden looks to be less effective for Mr Sanders this time around than four years ago. According to a recent Gallup poll, 67% of self-described Democrats now say that Nafta has been beneficial for the US.
The debate will play out in the general election, however. “Believe me, Trump will and has already talked about Joe’s record on trade,” Mr Sanders told CNN. “Just looking at the facts – if you’re going into the heartland of America… it’s hard to make the case, when Trump has made trade such an important part of his agenda.”
Big money
Mr Sanders’ sharpest lines against Mr Biden have been against the former vice-president’s ties to moneyed interests. Mr Biden “bailed out the crooks on Wall Street who nearly destroyed our economy 12 years ago”, Mr Sanders said on Monday night, on a day when US stocks experienced their steepest freefall since the 2008 financial crisis.
On the debate stage, the senator has hit out at Mr Biden for taking money from well-heeled backers, in contrast to the Vermont senator’s campaign fundraising mainly through small-dollar donations.
Mr Biden has positioned himself as a champion of the masses, arguing that it is not him, but Mr Trump who is in the pockets of Wall Street.
At one point, he said he would eschew taking money from political action committees – private groups that can donate big money to campaigns with little oversight – but was forced to reverse course when his White House hopes were looking anaemic before Super Tuesday. A campaign spokeswoman defended the decision, saying: “Those who are dedicated to defeating Donald Trump are organising in every way permitted by current law”.
A recent Gallup poll found just 23% of Americans are satisfied with campaign finance laws, but many Democrats may see big money as a necessary evil to taking on a well-funded Trump campaign.
Iraq war
“Joe is going to have to explain to the American people – who are so tired of endless wars which have cost us too many lives, destabilised too many regions around the world, have cost us trillions of dollars – why he was a leader in getting us involved in the war in Iraq,” Mr Sanders said last week.
The Vermont senator has often pointed out that as a congressman he voted against the US invasion of Iraq. On this point, Mr Biden has conceded. “It was a mistake, and I acknowledge that,” he has said.
Given the primary season results so far, it would appear that despite voters’ mixed feelings over the war (half of Americans think it was a mistake, according to Gallup), this particular error of judgement is not costing Mr Biden much – so many people made the same wrong judgment and, politically speaking, it was so long ago.
Could it be weaponised by Mr Trump in the general election? Given the president’s losing battle to reduce the American military footprint in the region, it could be a risky one for him – but that has never stopped Mr Trump from throwing a punch.
Democratic White House candidate Joe Biden is in damage limitation mode after saying African Americans “ain’t black” if they even consider voting for President Donald Trump over him.
Gaffe-prone Mr Biden made the remark in an interview on Friday with a prominent black radio host, Charlamagne Tha God, about his outreach to black voters.
Mr Biden later expressed regret for the “cavalier” comment.
The black vote has been key to the Biden candidacy.
What exactly did Biden say?
Throughout the 18-minute interview, Mr Biden, 77, stressed his longstanding ties to the black community, noting his overwhelming win this year in South Carolina’s presidential primary, a state where the Democratic electorate is more than 60% African American.
“I won every single county. I won the largest share of the black vote that anybody had, including Barack,” he said of President Barack Obama, the country’s first African-American president, who picked Mr Biden as his running mate.
Mr Biden also “guaranteed” that several black women were being considered to serve as his vice-president. The presumptive nominee has already committed to selecting a woman to join him on the Democratic ticket.
Toward the end of the interview, a campaign aide interrupted to say the former vice-president was out of time.
When an aide for Mr Biden tried to end the interview, Charlamagne protested, saying: “You can’t do that to black media.”
“I do that to white media and black media,” Mr Biden replied, adding that his wife was waiting to use their home broadcast studio.
Charlamagne urged Mr Biden to return for another interview, saying he had more questions.
“If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black,” Mr Biden responded.
Charlamagne’s nationally syndicated Breakfast Club show reaches more than 8 million listeners each month.
Biden trips an electrical live wire
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Joe Biden just touched a live electrical wire of racial identity in US politics.
Until now his support among black voters has been rock-solid, and there’s little chance Friday’s line will do much by itself to dent that. The Trump campaign will be happy, however, if they can chip away even a sliver of Mr Biden’s support, particularly in key electoral states like Wisconsin and Michigan, where black voter apathy hurt Democrats in 2016.
Mr Biden’s gaffe came at the end of an interview, as he was being pressed on whether he favoured Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar over a black woman as his running mate. That he responded with indignation – and then veered dangerously off-script – suggests his preference might lie with someone like Ms Klobuchar, who shares Mr Biden’s pragmatic political sensibilities.
If Friday’s kerfuffle has staying power, however, he might feel compelled to pick a black female candidate like Kamala Harris or Stacey Abrams – if only to clean up the mess he created.
How is the Biden camp trying to contain the damage?
Biden campaign adviser Symone Sanders defended the comments on Friday, saying they were made “in jest”.
“Let’s be clear about what the VP was saying: he was making the distinction that he would put his record with the African American community up against Trump’s any day. Period.”
Mr Biden scrambled to make amends on a call later to black business leaders.
“I should not have been so cavalier,” he said. “I’ve never, never, ever taken the African American community for granted.”
He added: “I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy.”
He continued: “No-one should have to vote for any party based on their race, their religion, their background.”
What’s the reaction?
The Trump campaign seized on the remarks, which senior campaign adviser Katrina Pierson described as “racist and dehumanising”.
“He truly believes that he, a 77-year-old white man, should dictate how black people should behave,” she said.
Her comment was echoed by Senator Tim Scott, a black Republican.
“That is the most arrogant, condescending comment I’ve heard in a very long time,” he told on Fox News.
“He’s saying that 1.3 million African Americans, that you’re not black? Who in the heck does he think he is?” the South Carolina lawmaker said, referring to the black Americans who voted for Mr Trump in 2016.
Mr Biden’s words also provoked criticism from his side of the aisle.
Keith Boykin, a former aide to Democratic President Bill Clinton, tweeted: “Yes, Biden is a much better choice for black people than racist Trump.
“But white people don’t get to tell black people what is black. Biden still has to EARN our vote.”
Derrick Johnson, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), told CBS News that Mr Biden could not “take the African-American vote for granted”.
One disappointed black voter’s response went viral.
Why is Biden popular among black voters?
America knows Joe Biden as the vice-president to the first black president in history.
Mr Obama endorsed him last month, saying in a video that Mr Biden “has all the qualities we need in a president right now”.
A Quinnipiac University poll released this week showed Mr Biden’s support among black voters at a stunning 81%, compared with 3% for Mr Trump. The remainder said they didn’t know.
What’s the latest with the sex assault claim against Biden?
A former Senate aide who accuses Mr Biden of sexual assault has been dropped as a client by a prominent lawyer who has represented several #MeToo cases.
Tara Reade says Mr Biden attacked her in a Senate hallway in 1993. On Thursday, attorney Douglas Wigdor said his office’s decision was no reflection on Ms Reade’s credibility, and he accused the media of trying to victim-shame her.
It came as questions were raised about Ms Reade’s past. A spokesperson for Antioch University in Seattle told the New York Times that she did not receive a degree from the university, though she had listed one on her CV.
She also claimed to have been a legislative assistant to Mr Biden. But she was actually a staff assistant – a more junior role.
However, Seattle University confirmed to Politico that Ms Reade did have a law degree from there.
Lawyers in legal cases in which she testified as an expert witness on domestic violence are reportedly now seeking to reopen them on the grounds that her credentials could have been faked.
A woman who accuses Democratic White House candidate Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her 27 years ago has called on him to quit the presidential race.
In an interview, Tara Reade urged Mr Biden to “please step forward and be held accountable”.
She added: “You should not be running on character for the president of the United States.”
Mr Biden, who is set to challenge President Donald Trump in November, has denied Ms Reade’s accusation.
What did Tara Reade say about the alleged assault?
Ms Reade, now 56, worked as a staff assistant to Mr Biden from 1992-93 when he was a senator for the US state of Delaware.
She has said that in 1993 he forced her against a wall and put his hands under her shirt and skirt, penetrating her with a finger, after she delivered him his gym bag.
In her most graphic, detailed account yet of the alleged assault, Ms Reade told US media personality Megyn Kelly that Mr Biden kissed her neck and told her he wanted to have sex with her, using an obscene term.
“So, he had one hand underneath my shirt, and the other had, I had a skirt on, and he went down my skirt and then went up and I remember I was up almost on my tippy toes,” she said.
“When he went inside the skirt, he was talking to me at the same time, and he was leaning into me and I pulled this way away from his head.”
When she refused his advances, she said: “He looked at me and said, ‘What the hell, man, I heard you liked me’.”
She added: “He pointed his finger at me and he said ‘You’re nothing to me. You’re nothing’.”
What else did she say?
Ms Reade was asked by Kelly if she wanted Mr Biden to withdraw from the race.
“I wish he would, but he won’t, but I wish he would,” she said. “That’s how I feel emotionally.”
Ms Reade offered to take a lie detector test about her claim, on condition that Mr Biden do so also.
“I will take one if Joe Biden takes one,” she said.
Ms Reade said she had received a death threat after Biden supporters accused her without evidence of being a Russian agent.
“His surrogates have been saying really horrible things about me and to me on social media,” she continued.
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“All of my social media has been hacked, all of my personal information has been dragged through.”
How did Biden’s campaign respond?
Biden campaign communications director Kate Bedingfield said in a statement after the interview aired that Ms Reade’s story contained “inconsistencies”.
“Women must receive the benefit of the doubt,” said the statement. “They must be able to come forward and share their stories without fear of retribution or harm – and we all have a responsibility to ensure that.
“At the same time, we can never sacrifice the truth. And the truth is that these allegations are false and that the material that has been presented to back them up, under scrutiny, keeps proving their falsity.”
Mr Biden, who is the Democratic party’s presumptive presidential nominee, broke his silence on the matter a week ago, appearing on a morning television show to brand the allegations “false”.
What other latest developments are there?
A court document from 1996 shows Ms Reade’s ex-husband describing “a problem she was having at work regarding sexual harassment, in US Senator Joe Biden’s office”, according to the San Luis Obispo Tribune.
“It was obvious that this event had a very traumatic effect on [Reade], and that she is still sensitive and effected [sic] by it today,” wrote Theodore Dronen, her then-husband, in a legal memo during their divorce battle.
The file obtained by the California newspaper appears to be the only document from the time that might describe Ms Reade’s allegation.
Ms Reade’s brother, a former neighbour and a former colleague have all said they heard her describe the accusation against her boss after the alleged incident. And her mother appears to have called a CNN show about the claim back in 1993.
High-powered Manhattan lawyer Douglas Wigdor said in a statement that he is representing Ms Reade. He has represented alleged sexual assault victims of jailed Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
Could the allegations hurt Biden?
Some Republicans are seizing on the Reade accusation to portray Democrats as hypocrites who only defend women when claims of wrongdoing are aimed at conservatives.
Mr Trump himself has faced a barrage of sexual misconduct allegations, which he also denies. He once boasted of grabbing women by the genitals.
However, the Democrats have much more strongly championed the #MeToo movement, which backs women who make accusations of sexual assault and calls for their stories to be heard.
Women are a core constituency for the party, traditionally giving more votes to Democratic candidates than Republicans.
Some liberal women have said they believe Tara Reade but will vote for Mr Biden anyway because they view Mr Trump as much worse.
November’s presidential election will be the first of the #MeToo era, and Mr Biden has framed it as a “battle for the soul of America”.
US Democratic candidate Joe Biden has flatly denied sexually assaulting a former staff assistant, Tara Reade, nearly 30 years ago.
“I’m saying unequivocally: it never, never happened,” he said of the allegations during a TV interview on Friday.
He asked for a search of the Senate archives for any record of a complaint Ms Reade allegedly filed at the time.
Ms Reade made a criminal complaint to police last month.
She said she was a victim of sexual assault without naming Mr Biden. The police complaint, she said, was filed “for safety reasons only” as the statute of limitations for her claim had expired.
Mr Biden is running against Republican incumbent President Donald Trump, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by some 25 women.
The Democrat put out his statement before speaking on Morning Joe, a show on US cable channel MSNBC.
What are Reade’s accusations?
She was working as a staff assistant to Mr Biden from 1992-93, when he was a senator for the US state of Delaware.
Ms Reade, now 56, says that in 1993 he forced her up against a wall in the halls of Congress, and put his hands under her shirt and skirt, penetrating her with a finger.
“I remember him saying, first, as he was doing it ‘Do you want to go somewhere else?’ and then him saying to me, when I pulled away… he said ‘Come on man, I heard you liked me,'” she told podcast host Katie Halper in March. “That phrase stayed with me.”
Ms Reade says records of Mr Biden’s 36-year career as a US senator will contain evidence that she complained to her superiors about him.
The records are being held at the University of Delaware, which has said it will not release any papers until two years after Mr Biden leaves public life.
It appears there were no witnesses to the alleged assault but three people have backed Ms Reade’s account.
Her brother, a former neighbour and a former colleague have all said that they heard her give it shortly after the alleged incident.
Former neighbour Lynda LaCasse told Business Insider: “This happened, and I know it did because I remember talking about it.”
“I remember her saying, here was this person that she was working for and she idolised him,” Ms LaCasse said. “I remember the skirt. I remember the fingers. I remember she was devastated.”
Ms Reade is one of more than half a dozen women who have forward over the last year to accuse him of inappropriate touching, hugging or kissing, though none described his actions as sexual assault at the time.
What did Biden say?
Speaking to MSNBC’s Mika Brezezinski on Friday, the former vice-president denied any sexual misconduct against Tara Reade outright.
“It did not happen. Period,” he said.
Brezezinski pressed Mr Biden on his former statements suggesting that women should be believed when coming forward with their stories of sexual violence.
In 2018, when now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was accused of sexual assault by Christine Blasey Ford, Mr Biden was joined by a chorus of top Democrats in supporting Dr Ford’s claims, and insisting that she be heard.
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“For a woman to come forward in the glaring light of focus, nationally, you’ve got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she’s talking about is real, whether or not she forgets the facts, whether or not it’s been made worse or better over time,” Mr Biden told reporters at the time.
“Are women to be believed unless it pertains to you?” Brezezinski asked Mr Biden on Friday.
“Women are to be believed, given the benefit of the doubt,” Mr Biden said. “Then you have to look at the circumstances and the facts.”
Mr Biden refused to speculate on Ms Reade’s motives, saying she had a right to come forward “and say whatever she wants to say. But I have a right to say: ‘Look at the facts.'”
But the former vice-president would not move to open his files at the University of Delaware for a search of documents pertaining to Ms Reade. Despite repeated questioning from Brezezinski, Mr Biden insisted those 1,800 boxes of documents did not contain any personnel files and would be used as political “fodder” for his ongoing presidential campaign.
As Joe Biden faces a serious sexual assault accusation, Democrats face a problem.
They are trying to be the political party that champions women and survivors of sexual assault, and yet their 2020 presidential candidate-apparent himself has been caught up in controversy over how he treats women.
Though Mr Biden has insisted that the allegation that he assaulted his former staff assistant Tara Reade 27 years ago is “unequivocally” false, he – and his Democratic supporters – are finding it hard to avoid the accusation that there is a whiff of hypocrisy over the whole affair.
Conservatives have pointed out the relative silence over Ms Reade’s allegation compared to the outcry over sexual assault claims made by Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s most recent Supreme Court appointment.
In September 2018, while the Kavanaugh hearing was unfolding, Ford’s name came up 1,898 times on CNN and nearly as often on MSNBC, according to RealClearPolitics.
Until recently, however, Ms Reade’s name was barely mentioned.
Mr Biden himself said Ms Ford and other women who come forward with sexual assault claims should be presumed to be telling the truth. He is having trouble answering questions now over why it should not the case with Ms Reade.
That has posed a particular problem for senior Democratic women backing Mr Biden – some of whom are being whispered as possible names for the Biden 2020 ticket.
The senators Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams are said to be among those hoping to become his vice-presidential candidate.
But with the sexual misconduct claims, an offer from Biden will be a “poisoned chalice”, says Rebecca Traister in New York Magazine: Once one of these women accepts his offer and runs as his vice-presidential candidate, they will be tied to Biden’s “historical shortcomings” and could imperil themselves and their own political future. It is a fine mess for progressive women to fall into, with no easy way out.
Could the allegations hurt Biden’s election chances?
Some Republicans are seizing on the Reade allegations to portray the Democrats as hypocrites who only defend women who allege wrongdoing against conservatives, the Associated Press reports.
But given the long-standing allegations against Donald Trump, a man who once boasted of grabbing women by the genitals, the Republican camp may struggle to make political capital from Mr Biden’s troubles.
At the same time, the Democrats have set themselves up as the party of moral purity, on gender as well as race. The party’s politicians are inevitably held to a different standard.
And women are a core constituency for the party, traditionally giving more votes to Democratic candidates than Republicans.
Hillary Clinton endorsed Joe Biden during a virtual town hall on Tuesday, putting the support of the Democratic standard bearer from four years ago behind the former vice president and current presumptive presidential nominee.
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Clinton touted Biden as a “friend” and a figure who has been “preparing for this moment his entire life,” as she lambasted President Donald Trump as someone who is so ill prepared to be commander in chief that he appears to be just playing the role on television.
“I want to add my voice to the many who have endorsed you to be our president,” Clinton said.
She added, in a nod to the coronavirus, that “this is a moment where we need a leader, a president, like Joe Biden.”
Biden called Clinton a “friend” and thanked her for the “wonderful personal endorsement.”
The former secretary of state’s endorsement was a foregone conclusion — she had said for months that she would back the eventual nominee — but it remains a significant boost for Biden because Clinton still enjoys deep support from an array of Democratic voters. She won over 65 million votes four years ago and has proven to be a prolific fundraiser throughout her political career.
But Clinton’s endorsement also allows Republicans to dredge up every controversy and attack that they used against the 2016 Democratic nominee, something Republicans are eager to do as they look to recreate the strategy that led to President Donald Trump’s victory.
“There is no greater concentration of Democrat establishment than Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton together,” Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement. “President Trump beat her once and now he’ll beat her chosen candidate.”
Clinton is the latest top Democrat to back Biden, who after a sluggish start to the primary process saw his fortunes shift by dominating the South Carolina primary and notching a series of key wins on Super Tuesday. Former President Barack Obama, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders all endorsed Biden earlier this month.
Clinton sat out the primary fight, telling interviewers repeatedly that she was paying attention to the nominating process from afar.
“I’m just watching and hoping that we nominate whoever is the strongest candidate to take out the current incumbent,” Clinton said in March, before the field had largely cleared. “That’s the only thing that really matters at the end of the day.”
But Clinton stepped up her praise of Biden after Super Tuesday, once the former vice president’s only opponent was Bernie Sanders, a politician who Clinton has deep-seated animosity for after the Vermont senator stayed in the 2016 primary for months after his path to winning the nomination then was mostly closed.
“He has the experience,” Clinton said of the former vice president. “He knows what needs to be done, he can repair the damage that he would be inheriting.”
Clinton endorsing Biden is a reversal of what happened to the duo in 2016, when Biden stepped aside and endorsed his former Senate colleague despite wanting to run himself. The decision partially stemmed from former President Barack Obama firmly getting behind Clinton, all but denying his running mate and vice president the chance to run for the job in 2016.
The decision not to run back then has weighed on Biden, though.
“I regret it every day, but it was the right decision for my family and for me,” Biden said in January 2016, noting the fact that his son, Beau, had died the prior year. “And I plan on staying deeply involved.”
Clinton and Biden share a common story: Both have deep ties to Scranton, Pennsylvania, where Biden was raised and Clinton would spend summers with her grandparents. When Biden endorsed Clinton in 2016, their first event was in the city, where the duo visited Biden’s childhood home.
Clinton recalled during Tuesday’s event how, when she was secretary of state, they had a standing breakfast date once a week, where they would talk often about work but also about family and their lives.
Clinton concluded her endorsement with a hope for Biden: “I wish he were president right now.”