The United States is in a presidential election year, and what an election it is shaping up to be. The showdown features democrat incumbent president Joe Biden and former republican president Donald Trump. Each candidate and their respective party and surrogates have been critical of each other, and each has issues that has dogged them throughout the year.
Joe Biden
Joe Biden won the presidency in the 2020 election, but he started off his presidency with some contention as the loser of the election, Donald Trump, claimed the 2020 election was rigged and led several efforts to overturn the results. None of those efforts turned up anything that revealed election interference and Biden was sworn in on January 20, 2021. He immediately got work, “In his first 100 days in office, Biden signed more than 60 executive actions, 24 of which are direct reversals of Trump’s policies.”[1] “The executive actions include halting funding for the construction of Trump’s border wall, reversing Trump’s travel ban targeting largely Muslim countries, imposing a mask mandate on federal property, ramping up vaccination supplies, canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, ending federal use of private prisons and reversing Trump’s ban on transgender Americans joining the military.”[2]
As the election year began, Biden held his first event for re-election on January 6, 2024. The date choice was conscious to draw a distinction between Biden and Trump, whom many believed would march on to become the republican nominee. Biden was not without challengers however, he was primaried by Marianne Williamson, Dean Phillips, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Though he had challengers “Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee by securing a majority of the 3,933 pledged delegates available during the primary process”[3] And “Biden will be formally named the party’s nominee this August at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.”[4]
During the campaign Biden and his camp have targeted Trump on his numerous issues. One big issue that was highlighted was Trump’s anti-abortion stance which, after Roe v. Wade was overturned, became a contentious issue across the nation. Several democratic groups have led efforts to remind voters what Trump’s presidency was like aiming to remind them that Biden is the better choice between the two. Though Biden himself does not mention Trump by name on the campaign trail, he does point to his predecessor’s plans for a second term which he says will not be beneficial the country. Biden is not without fault, critics of Biden have pointed to his age as an issue and his approach to the Israel-Hamas war.
Donald Trump
After his first term, Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. As mentioned before, he claimed the election was rigged, that there was election interference, and launched several efforts to overturn the election. Several Trump surrogates went to swing states like Arizona and Georgia to file lawsuit contesting the results. The lawsuits did not go far despite the Trump camp’s claim that they had evidence. Most of those suits were dismissed outright or eventually turned down for lack of standing.
On January 6, 2021, Trump held a rally in Washington D.C. to promote his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen. After the rally several of his supporters, emboldened by his words, marched towards the U.S. Capitol to try and prevent the certification of the election. They mobbed and broke into the Capitol which delayed the certification but did not stop it. Lawmakers returned after the assault to finish the process. After Trump left the White House he moved to Mar-A-Lago in Florida. From there Trump launched attacked on the Biden Administration and eventually announced his candidacy for President in the 2024 election on November 15, 2022.
As the year 2024 approached Trump became occupied with something else besides his campaign, his became embroiled in court battles. “For the first 234 years of the nation’s history, no American president or former president had ever been indicted. That changed in 2023. Over a five-month span, former President Donald Trump was charged in four criminal cases. Together, the indictments accuse him of wide-ranging criminal conduct before, during and after his presidency.”[5] He was indicted in 2 election interference cases for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election, one in Washington D.C and the other in the state of Georgia. He was also indicted in a hush money case in New York for paying to keep porn actress Stormy Daniels quiet about their trist leading up to the 2016 election in effort to not have it negatively influence the electorate against him. Lastly, Trump was indicted in Florida for taking classified documents from the White House, lying about taking them, then refusing to return them. These cases are currently moving through their respective courts, though currently only the New York case has gone to trial. Trump is currently required to be present for the trial in New York.
Prior to being having to be in court, Trump also had several primary challengers. Thought there were many Trump led them all in the polls by several digits. Eventually they all dropped out before Super Tuesday. Only one ended her campaign but did not endorse him, Nikki Haley. Though she is no longer campaigning she still manages to get some votes in lingering primary elections. It is speculated that this means there is still some of the republican electorate that reject trump and the chaos he brings.
What Next?
So currently President Biden and Vice President Harris are campaigning and fundraising around the country while Trump is in a court room and dealing with other court cases. He falsely claims that his opponent has weaponized the courts against him while ignoring the wrongdoings that led him there. There is still months to go before the election so it is not all wrapped up, who knows what will happen.