WASHINGTON ― Ending months of speculation, former Vice President Joe Bidenannounced Thursday that he’s running for president in 2020, joining a crowded field of Democrats eager to take on President Donald Trump. “The core values of this nation, our standing in the world, our very democracy, everything that has made America — America — is at stake,” Biden said in a video announcing his candidacy. The video was distributed across social media platforms. “That’s why today I’m announcing my candidacy for president of the United States.” Biden has steadily led the race for the Democratic nomination in early polling, and he’s not lacking in confidence. He declared in December that he was “the most qualified person” to be president and said the issues facing the country “are the issues that have been in my wheelhouse, that I’ve worked on my whole life.”

Biden all but confirmed his run during a speech on April 5, when he defended himself with tone-deaf responses to nearly 10 women who have come forward in recent weeks with allegations of inappropriate and unwanted touching. “I’m sorry I didn’t understand more,” he told reporters, after twice joking about the touching during his speech to laughs from the predominantly male audience. “I’m not sorry for any of my intentions. I’m not sorry for anything that I have ever done. I’ve never been disrespectful, intentionally, to a man or a woman.” The allegations spotlighted Biden’s mixed legacy on women’s rights issues, a political liability in the Me Too era. Biden’s run seemed like a foregone conclusion as he teased his prospective campaign for several months. He reportedly floated the idea of choosing Democratic rising star Stacey Abrams as his running mate in an attempt to assuage criticisms of himself as an old white man amid the diverse field of 2020 Democrats. (Abrams has repeatedly denied they had any such conversation.) In the 3.5-minute video announcing his 2020 bid, Biden cited the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017 and Trump’s response to it as a reason for his candidacy. Trump notoriously claimed there were “very fine people” attending the rally and protesting it. “We are in the battle for the soul of this nation,” Biden said in his campaign video, a reference to an op-ed he wrote for The Atlantic in the aftermath of the rally. “I believe history will look back on four years of this president and all he embraces as an aberrant moment in time,” he continued in the video. “But if we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation ... and I cannot stand by and watch that happen.” From his 36 years in the Senate and eight years as vice president under President Barack Obama, Biden’s strengths are clear. “President Obama has long said that selecting Joe Biden as his running mate in 2008 was one of the best decisions he ever made,” Katie Hill, a spokeswoman for Obama, said in a statement Thursday. “He relied on the Vice President’s knowledge, insight, and judgment throughout both campaigns and the entire presidency.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS Former Vice President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama "forged a special bond over the last 10 years and remain close today," Obama spokeswoman Katie Hill said in a statement Thursday.

The core values of this nation… our standing in the world… our very democracy...everything that has made America -- America --is at stake. That’s why today I’m announcing my candidacy for President of the United States. #Joe2020https://t.co/jzaQbyTEz3 — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 25, 2019