President and former Penn presidential professor of practice Joe Biden announced his bid for re-election on Tuesday.
“Every generation of Americans has faced a moment when they’ve had to defend democracy,” Biden said in a three minute video. “Stand up for our personal freedoms. Stand up for the right to vote and our civil rights. And this is our moment.”
Biden’s announcement comes weeks after his visit to Penn on April 1 for College senior Maisy Biden’s art show at Charles Addams Fine Arts Hall. He previously made an unexpected visit to Penn in October 2022.
The April 1 visit was his first to the University since classified documents were found at the Penn Biden Center in November. The discovery at the Washington, D.C. think tank — first reported in January — prompted a letter from the United States House Oversight and Accountability Committee to Penn President Liz Magill inquiring about possible foreign influence.
The Penn Biden Center opened in 2018. Beyond Penn, Biden is a frequent visitor to Philadelphia. On Feb. 6, he visited the city to speak at the Democratic National Convention’s winter meeting ahead of his Feb. 7 State of the Union address and amid speculations he would announce his re-election campaign.
During the speech, a number of members of the crowd chanted, “Four more years! Four more years!”
Biden was named the Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor in 2017. In this role, he held joint appointments in the Annenberg School for Communication and the School of Arts and Sciences. However, he did not teach any classes. He took an unpaid leave of absence from this position in order to run for president in the 2020 election cycle.
At 80 years old, Biden is the oldest president in American history. According to one poll, 49% of Democrats want Biden to run again, and many cited his age — 86 by the end of a potential second term — as a major factor in their answer.
Former United States president and 1968 Wharton graduate Donald Trump announced his 2024 presidential bid in November 2022.
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