‘Welcome to the race, Sleepy Joe’: Trump taunts Biden

“Welcome to the race Sleepy Joe,” Trump tweeted on Thursday. “I only hope you have the intelligence, long in doubt, to wage a successful primary campaign. It will be nasty - you will be dealing with people who truly have some very sick & demented ideas. But if you make it, I will see you at the Starting Gate!”

Although long considered a frontrunner, Biden only formally declared his presidential bid earlier on Thursday. In a video address, Biden made Trump the focus of his campaign, linking the president with white supremacist protesters, and referring to ‘Antifa’ activists as “a courageous group of Americans.”

“If we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation, who we are, and I cannot stand by and watch that happen,” Biden said, describing the election as a “battle for the soul of this nation.”

Biden’s video, however, outlines no policies of his own. Instead it exclusively highlights his opposition to Trump. However, the former vice president is an establishment Democrat in the mold of Hillary Clinton, rather than a more left-leaning activist like Sen. Bernie Sanders or Sen. Cory Booker — proponents of the “sick and demented ideas” Trump teased about.

Sanders and Booker are just two of the 19 Democratic hopefuls Biden will square off against. Other challengers include senators Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, as well as Beto O’Rourke and Indiana’s Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Biden enjoys a lead over all of these candidates, and, according to one Politico poll, over Trump himself, by a margin of eight points.

Much can change between now and November 2020, but Biden appears to have survived his first major scandal unscathed, barely dropping in popularity last month after multiple women came forward and accused him of inappropriate groping and, bizarrely, sniffing. Biden has long been mocked by the right for his handsy, ‘creepy uncle’ behavior, and Trump himself joined in earlier this month, tweeting a fan-made meme video featuring Biden groping and sniffing himself.