President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump clinched their parties’ presidential nominations Tuesday with decisive victories in a slate of low-profile primaries.
The outcome of contests across Georgia, Mississippi and Washington State was never in doubt.
Neither Biden, a Democrat, nor Trump, a Republican, faced major opposition.
But the magnitude of their wins gave each man the delegate majority he needed to claim his party’s nomination at the summertime national conventions.
Not even halfway through the presidential primary calendar, Tuesday marked a crystalizing moment for a nation uneasy with its choices in 2024.
There is no longer any doubt that the fall election will feature a rematch between two flawed and unpopular presidents.
At 81, Biden is already the oldest president in US history, while the 77-year-old Trump is facing decades in prison as a defendant in four criminal cases.
Their rematch — the first featuring two US presidents since 1912 — will almost certainly deepen the nation’s searing political and cultural divides over the eight-month grind that lies ahead.
In a statement, Biden celebrated the nomination while casting Trump as a serious threat to democracy.
Trump, Biden said, “is running a campaign of resentment, revenge, and retribution that threatens the very idea of America.”
He continued, “I am honoured that the broad coalition of voters representing the rich diversity of the Democratic Party across the country have put their faith in me once again to lead our party — and our country — in a moment when the threat Trump poses is greater than ever.”
On the eve of Tuesday’s primaries, Trump acknowledged that Biden would be the Democratic nominee, even as seized on the president’s age.
“I assume he’s going to be the candidate,” Trump said of Biden on CNBC. “I’m his only opponent other than life, life itself.”
Both candidates dominated Tuesday’s primaries in swing-state Georgia, deep-red Mississippi and Democratic-leaning Washington. Voting was taking place later in Hawaii’s Republican caucus.
Despite their tough talk, the road ahead will not be easy for either presumptive nominee.
