Biden clinches 2024 Democratic nomination for president

President Biden on Tuesday clinched the 2024 Democratic nomination for president, topping the 1,968 delegate threshold with an easy win in the Georgia primary. 

Biden, 81, will be coronated at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August and it is virtually certain that his Republican general election opponent will be former President Donald Trump, setting up a rematch of the 2020 contest. 

The 81-year-old president cruised through the primary process, encountering only minimal competition by the insurgent campaigns of Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) and self-help guru Marianne Williamson — neither of whom obtained any delegates this cycle. 

Biden, however, was dealt an embarrassing Super Tuesday loss in the Democratic caucus in American Samoa, where previously unknown candidate Jason Palmer prevailed in the low-turnout contest, winning  three delegates for the convention. 

The president was also plagued in several state primaries by Democratic voters who opted to mark themselves “uncommitted” rather than vote for the incumbent.

The “uncommitted” campaign served as a protest to Biden’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas and refusal to call for a permanent cease-fire in the conflict. 

“Uncommitted” has thus far racked up 20 delegates for the DNC convention. 

“This is a time of choosing. So let us choose the truth. Let us choose America,” Biden told voters in a hype video released moments after he clinched the nomination.

“Are you ready? Are you ready to defend democracy? Are you ready to defend our freedoms? Are you ready to win this election,” he continued.

On the campaign trail, the president has accused Trump, 77, of attempting to “drag us backwards into the chaos, division, and darkness that defined his term in office.” 

Biden has argued that his predecessor is “driven by grievance and grift,” “focused on his own revenge and retribution” and seeking to “rip away fundamental freedoms like the ability for women to make their own health care decisions.”

Trump, who can clinch the Republican nomination Tuesday with wins in Georgia, Mississippi and Washington, leads Biden in several polls, including in numerous key battleground states. 

A recent survey from the New York Times and Siena College found that Trump, benefitting from a boost in support from black and Hispanic voters, would handily win a rematch against Biden 48% to 43%. 

The poll also showed Trump maintaining 97% of his core supporters who backed his 2020 campaign while picking up 10% of former Biden voters. 

Biden has been mired in record-low approval ratings and has lost significant levels of support among key Democratic voting blocs, including blacks, Hispanics and Muslims, amid concerns over the economy, border security and his handling of the Israel-Hamas war. 

The president, the oldest man to ever serve in the Oval Office, has also been rocked by a scathing Justice Department report that raised doubts about his mental acuity. 

In the report released last month, Special Counsel Robert Hur defended his decision not to charge Biden related to his retention of classified documents after the vice presidency because he would be seen by jurors as an “elderly man with a poor memory.”

A Trump-Biden rematch would be the first replay of a presidential general election contest since 1956, when President Dwight Eisenhower squared off against Adlai Stevenson.