Kushner says Trump to run for president in 2024; Biden calls him 'threat to democracy'

Former US President Donald Trump is planning to run for the presidency in 2024, his son-in-law and a former aide said on Friday, fueling the long-running debate over whether the scandal-marred Republican will again jump into the fray.

"I know that he's obviously thinking about it, he hates seeing what's happening in the country," Jared Kushner was quoted as saying by Sky News.

Asked when the former president, who is currently embroiled in many legal battles, might make a decision, Kushner said: "Nobody can speak for him."

"With Trump, it's hard to rule anything out, he's a very flexible thing," he added, when asked to confirm that Trump was not ruling out running for the White House again in two years.

Meanwhile, the two mainstream parties in the US are currently campaigning for the November mid-term congressional elections, which has the potential of influencing the outcome of the 2024 presidential vote. 

Democrats have high hopes of a win according to a new poll published by The Wall Street Journal, which projected that if the elections are held today, 47 percent of eligible voters would cast ballots for Democrats, and 44 percent would vote for Republicans.

On Thursday, US President Joe Biden slammed his predecessor Donald Trump, calling him and his Republican supporters a threat to America’s democracy.

In a prime-time speech on Thursday in Philadelphia, Biden said Trump and his “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) supporters had no regard for the rule of law or the Constitution and were undermining democracy by fanning the flames of political violence.

He said a majority of Republicans don't support "extreme ideology," but the party was "dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this country."

Trump calls for return of privileged documents seized by FBI from his home

Former US President Trump has called on FBI to return documents reportedly seized from his Florida home that are protected by attorney-client and executive privileges.

"Too much of what is happening in our country today is not normal. Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” said Biden, stressing that he was not referring to all Republicans.

“History tells us that blind loyalty to a single leader and a willingness to engage in political violence are fatal to democracy,” said the president.

The 79-year-old Biden also referred to last year’s US Capitol assault by Trump supporters, when they refused to accept his defeat and stormed the Capitol building, saying there was "no place for political violence in America. Period. None. Ever."

He described the November midterm elections as a “battle for the soul of this nation”.

Hitting back at him, Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said that the Democratic president was trying to divide Americans, not the Republicans.

“In the past two years, Joe Biden has launched an assault on the soul of America, on its people, on its laws, on its most sacred values,” McCarthy said. 

“He has launched an assault on our democracy. His policies have severely wounded America’s soul, diminished America’s spirit, and betrayed America’s trust.”

Trump also lashed out at Biden, saying he "must be insane" or suffering from dementia, in a post on his social media channel Truth Social.

"Someone should explain to Joe Biden, slowly but passionately, that MAGA means, as powerfully as mere words can get, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! If he doesn't want to Make America Great Again, which through words, action, and thought, he doesn't, then he certainly should not be representing the United States of America," Trump wrote.

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