WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden did everything on Monday to look and sound like someone running for re-election — but again insisted he has no official announcement to make.

The 80-year-old Democrat has delayed an expected campaign launch for months, while teasing repeatedly that his intention is to run.

Hosting hundreds of members of the public at a festive Easter event — the White House Easter Egg Roll — Biden once more delivered his almost-but-not-quite confirmation.

“I plan on running now but we’re not prepared to announce it yet,” Biden said in a brief interview with NBC News on the South Lawn, accompanied by his wife First Lady Jill Biden.

Biden noted he intended to attend numerous more egg rolls, a traditional event where children race to push coloured eggs over the grass. He only has one more Easter left in his first term ahead of the 2024 election.

“I plan on at least three or four more Easter Egg Rolls,” he said. “Maybe five…, maybe six, what the hell — I don’t know.” If Biden’s statement left a little wiggle room, his candidate-style crowd dive did not.

Biden has often appeared most comfortable away from the stiff formalities of the presidency. Hugging children and taking cell phones from multiple people in the Easter crowd for selfies, he gave a good impression of a president gearing up for the campaign.

Already the oldest president in US history, Biden would be 86 years old by the time he completed a second term.

His refusal so far to formally declare has left any would-be replacements from the Democratic party waiting quietly in the wings. However, if he does declare, he would not face serious challenges from his own party.

On the Republican side, the current frontrunner is former president Donald Trump whom Biden defeated in 2020.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2023