Biden celebrated Irish and American values and spoke about peace and hope in his speech outside St Muredach’s cathedral in Ballina…reports Asian Lite News
US President Joe Biden concluded his visit to Ireland on Friday with a passionate address to tens of thousands of people at his ancestral town in County Mayo.
Biden celebrated Irish and American values and spoke about peace and hope in his speech outside St Muredach’s cathedral in Ballina.
“Everything between Ireland [and] America runs deep. Our history, our heritage, our sorrows, our future, our friendship, our joys” Biden said.
“It feels like coming home. It really does. Over the years, stories of this place have become part of my soul, part of my family lore,” he added.
A series of concerts and festivities were the prelude to the speech, which was attended by some 27,000 people.
Biden drew a crowd that was more than double the size of the town’s population, waving the Irish tricolour and red, white and blue flags, some attendees drove from hours away and waited in the rain and cold for a chance to see him.
It was a homecoming trip for the US president whose great-great-great grandfather Edward Blewitt left Ballina for Scranton, Pennsylvania, in the 1850s.
Earlier in his travels this week, Biden met with Northern Ireland leaders to mark the 25th Anniversary of the Good Friday agreement that ended sectarian violence, addressed the Irish parliament, watched Gaelic sports with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, and saw the widow of his favourite poet, Seamus Heaney.
Meanwhile, President Biden told reporters that he has already made up his mind regarding whether to seek reelection and that he will announce it “pretty shortly.” “I’ve already made that calculus. We’ll announce it relatively soon. But the trip here just reinforced my sense of optimism about what can be done,” Biden said before departing Ireland for the United States, according to The Hill.
“I told you my plan is to run again,” the US President added.
According to The Hill, although Biden has been hinting about a second-term bid for some months, no formal announcement has yet been made. When the president didn’t make an announcement around the State of the Union address in February, advisors first speculated that Biden would do so in the spring.
A second term would begin with Biden at the age of 82. The party’s 2024 convention will take place in Chicago, he and the DNC announced earlier this week.
Biden is the oldest US president in history. If he wins re-election, he would be 86 at the end of his second term.
Biden has said he intends to be the Democratic candidate in 2024 but has not made a formal announcement. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris said they will run together, reported NBC News.
However, a majority of Democrats now think one term is plenty for President Joe Biden, despite his insistence that he plans to seek reelection in 2024.
That’s according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research that shows just 37% of Democrats say they want him to seek a second term, down from 52% in the weeks before last year’s midterm elections.
While Biden has trumpeted his legislative victories and ability to govern, the poll suggests relatively few U.S. adults give him high marks on either. Follow-up interviews with poll respondents suggest that many believe the 80-year-old’s age is a liability, with people focused on his coughing, his gait, his gaffes and the possibility that the world’s most stressful job would be better suited for someone younger.
“I, honestly, think that he would be too old,” said Sarah Overman, 37, a Democrat who works in education in Raleigh, North Carolina. “We could use someone younger in the office.”
As the president gives his State of the Union address Tuesday, he has a chance to confront fundamental doubts about his competence to govern. Biden has previously leaned heavily on his track record to say that he’s more than up to the task. When asked if he can handle the office’s responsibilities at his age, the president has often responded as if he’s accepting a dare: “Watch me.”
Democratic candidates performed better than expected in the 2022 midterm elections, a testament to Biden’s message that he is defending democracy and elevating the middle class. Democrats expanded their control of the Senate by one seat and narrowly lost their House majority even though history indicated there would be a Republican wave.
When asked about the survey’s findings at Monday’s news briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre indicated that the results in last year’s election mattered more than polling numbers.
“The way that we should look at this is what we saw from the midterms,” said Jean-Pierre, noting that the relative Democratic successes were “because the president went out there and spoke directly to the American people.”
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