In a 3 1/2-minute video that focused on excoriating Trump, Biden presented himself as a steely leader for a country wracked by political conflict. Unlike the wide field of Democrats competing for the affections of the left, Biden avoided almost any talk of policy or ideology, signaling that he believes voters will embrace him as a figure of stability and maturity even in a partisan primary election.
In doing so, Biden, 76, is making a bet of sorts that the Democratic Party’s leftward shift in recent years has been greatly overstated, and that the moral clarity of his rhetoric and his seeming strength as a general election candidate will overpower other considerations for Democratic voters who tend to prize youth, diversity and unapologetic liberalism.
Laying out for the first time why he wanted to run for president, Biden invoked the white supremacist march through Charlottesville, Virginia, that ended in bloodshed in 2017 and Trump’s comment that there were “very fine people on both sides.” In that moment, Biden said in the video, “I knew the threat to our nation was unlike any I’d ever seen in my lifetime.”
“We are in the battle for the soul of this nation,” Biden said, warning that if Trump is re-elected, “He will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation, who we are, and I cannot stand by and watch that happen.”
Trump did not respond to Biden’s denunciation of his response to Charlottesville, responding instead with a taunt, calling Biden “Sleepy Joe” and deriding the Democratic field as having “demented ideas.”
Biden enters the Democratic race as something of a front-runner, albeit one beset by challenges from all flanks and looming questions about his long political record. Allies of Biden believe he must take steps in short order to explain to voters his political evolution on a range of issues, including ones as elemental as criminal justice, abortion rights and the Iraq War.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.