By Kean Huy Alado
For the last decade, the United States of America has been under the leadership of two candidates. Donald Trump and Joe Biden. The former beginning his term in 2016, and the latter in 2020 running as the incumbent. This upcoming November, we will see these two presidents once again engage in a presidential election. However, circumstances for both candidates have changed since 2020, complicating both of their futures.
As the democratic nominee, Joe Biden is currently the oldest president of the United States at 81 years old. He faced stabilizing a country amid a pandemic and the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021.
During his term, Biden had an incident in mishandling classified documents. On Jan. 9, 2023, classified documents during Biden’s time in Senate were found in his former office and in his personal residence. This caused a legal incident for Biden and was compared to Trump’s, who was indicted August 2022 for having also mishandled classified documents of a larger quantity. Some special counsel members take issue with Biden’s memory, as he had difficulty recalling personal milestones, calling into question his abilities as president.
Additionally, Biden has been losing support, especially from younger audiences due to his support of Israel in the war against Hamas. The Uncommitted movement began this February as a protest of his role in the war. The movement, though relatively small, aims to convince people to abstain from voting for either party. This would affect Biden the most since, according to Axios-Generation Lab, 52 percent of voters under 35 will vote for Biden and 48 percent for Trump.
Alternatively, the republican candidate, Donald Trump was nominated for his respective party after Nikki Haley suspended her campaign on March 6.
“I don't think you're going to have another election in this country,” said Trump about what would happen if he were not elected.
Trump was impeached twice but acquitted twice by the Senate. Throughout this election season, Trump faced legal battles with some surrounding the 2020 presidential election. One case was the Georgia election interference case, where Trump was indicted for entering an unlawful conspiracy to overturn his loss in the state of Georgia. On April 4, the judge dismissed his lawyer's bid to dismiss charges under freedom of speech. While the defense is trying to have her removed for engaging in an inappropriate relationship with a former prosecutor of the case, the Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will follow up on her previous request for the trial to take place in August before the election.
Another case is that of the New York civil court. Trump was accused of committing financial fraud and was asked to post a bond of $454 million by March 25 while he appeals the case in hopes of a delay. But on that day, the appeals court decided to decrease the bond to $175 million, which allowed Trump to post the bond on April 1. Now NY State Attorney General Letitia James wants his lawyers to “justify” the bond and show how Trump will keep good on it. A hearing is set for April 22.
Trump is also under federal investigation for election interference case where Trump was allegedly engaging in criminal activities to stay in power after losing in 2020, which included exploiting the Jan. 6 insurrection. This case’s trial is currently delayed, like the federal classified documents case.
Trump also had his first criminal trial court date on April 15 for hiding hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels and falsifying company records during the 2016 campaign. He is the first of any former president to undergo a criminal trial.
Despite all these charges and investigations, a Supreme Court ruling this March declared that Trump cannot be excluded from the ballots, furthering his potential of taking office again.
Barry students Tiani Sankey, a sophomore majoring in communication and media studies; D’Asia Hargrove, a junior psychology major; and Dickson Louis Jean, a computer science senior, all provided their stance on this election season.
Hargrove and Jean align themselves with the Democratic party while Sankey is not currently registered to vote. Both Hargrove and Sankey know of the dramatic history between the two candidates and believe Trump will emerge victorious in the 2024 election. On the other hand, Jean knows little about the previous drama, but also believes Trump will be president.
“I think under either candidate, America is in for another rough four years,” said Jean.
Hargrove and Jean are undecided and claim they need more time before casting their vote.
“None of them. They are both horrible candidates in my opinion and the American people deserve better choices, not just two options forced on them,” said Sankey.
However, Sankey is hopeful for the independent candidate Robert Kennedy.
“Sadly, both of these candidates provide pros and cons with various critical aspects of life,” said Hargrove. “Either way, it will be an intense following term due to each of the candidate's goals with presidency.”
Sankey confidently believes the future is “bleak.”
“My thought on the future is actually so bleak and dystopian it’s actually crazy,” she said. “There’s an urgent lack of hope and those in power are fraught fully disconnected from reality and their constituents. We know it and the world knows it.”
A poll by Axios-Generation Lab Youth found in February that 42 percent already decided to vote while 58 percent are doubtful. At a national scale by March 28, Trump holds the favor of 46 percent of voters by only 1.5 percent. Locally, a Florida poll at the same time indicated Trump maintains 47 percent of the voters and Biden holds 41 percent. As a Republican-led state, one for over 24 years now, Florida will most likely remain a Republican.
From unfinished court cases to unsettled young voters, the 2024 presidential election will chart a dramatic future.