Biden Officially Announces Run for President

Former Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday officially announced he is running for president in 2020.

Biden in his campaign announcement evoked the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., that left Heather Heyer dead and prompted President Trump to “condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.” Biden, who publicly endorsed marriage rights for same-sex couples before then-President Obama did in 2012, did not specifically reference LGBT rights in his announcement.

“America is an idea,” said Biden in his announcement that he posted to YouTube. “It guarantees that everybody is treated with dignity and gives hate no safe harbor.”

Biden joins South Bend (Ind.) Mayor Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and more than a dozen other Democrats who are running for president. Speculation over whether Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan will challenge Trump in the Republican primary also continues to grow.

Story courtesy of the Washington Blade.