Joe Biden 2024 reelection: President speaks about economy

President Joe Biden honed in on his economic achievements Tuesday in his first speech since he announced he’ll seek a second term within the White House.

“Folks, it is time to finish the job,” Biden said after listing his first term economic accomplishments. The road was followed by chants of “4 more years!” from the union-member crowd.

Biden launched his reelection campaign with a video Tuesday morning, 4 years to the day after he announced he was running for president within the 2020 cycle. Much has modified within the country since his last bid, as former President Donald Trump isn’t any longer within the Oval Office, the world emerged from the worst of the coronavirus pandemic and Biden as an incumbent now not faces nearly two dozen Democratic opponents.

Still, Biden’s pitch stays largely the identical: he argues that a time of uncertainty and division, the country needs an experienced leader on the helm. The president’s launch video Tuesday showed clips of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and he said fighting for U.S. democracy and private freedoms has “been the work of my first term.” Last time around, he made the same argument about uniting the country while leaning into the white supremacy rally in Charlottesville.

But Biden also plans to make the economy central to his pitch, starting together with his speech to the North America’s Constructing Trades Unions labor federation Tuesday on the Washington, D.C. Hilton hotel. As voters often judge incumbent presidents on economic conditions, Biden outlined what he considers the economic wins of his first term, just like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

“Under my predecessor, infrastructure became a punchline,” Biden said. “On my watch, infrastructure’s turn out to be a decade headline.”

Even before the coronavirus pandemic sent markets spiraling and put hundreds of thousands of Americans out of labor, Biden had campaigned on constructing a more equitable system centered on a strong middle class. The U.S. economy has added hundreds of thousands of jobs during Biden’s first term, but overall it offers mixed indicators for the president.

Unemployment earlier this 12 months was at a nearly 54-year low, but elevated inflation remains to be burdening consumers with high costs whilst it starts to ease.

“There are quite a lot of folks who have a look at the economy through the eyes of Wall Street, I’m not considered one of them,” Biden said.

“I’m not saying any of them are bad guys, that is not how I have a look at the world,” he continued. “I have a look at the world through the eyes of Scranton and Claymont, Del., where I grew up, not a joke. Through the eyes of the working people I grew up with, this nation, through the eyes of my dad. Through the eyes of individuals such as you who’ve been in a position to make it since you’re in a union. The speaker, the previous president, the MAGA extremists are cut from a special cloth.”

Biden oversaw the passage of several massive economic bills, including a 2021 pandemic relief package and bipartisan infrastructure law. He also signed a bipartisan semiconductor manufacturing plan and a social safety net expansion passed by Democrats in 2022.

Through the plans, Biden aimed to spice up U.S. manufacturing, cut costs for consumers and bolster the care economy for staff. But not one of the laws went so far as Biden’s initial vision when he took office.