Joe Biden announces he is running for President

Former Vice President Joe Biden has announced his intention to run for President of the United States in the 2020 US elections.

In a speech announcing his intention to run for president, which was posted to his official YouTube channel, Biden stated: "The core values of this nation… our standing in the world… our very democracy... everything that has made America - America - is at stake."

Check out the former Vice President's announcement below: 

He added: "I believe history will look back on four years of this president and all he embraces as an aberrant moment in time. But 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."

In an earlier speech made while on a book tour, Biden stated: "I'll be as straight with you as I can. I think I'm the most qualified person in the country to be president. The issues that we face as a country today are the issues that have been in my wheelhouse, that I've worked on my whole life.

He added: "No one should run for the job unless they believe that they would be qualified doing the job. I've been doing this my whole adult life, and the issues that are the most consequential relating to the plight of the middle class and our foreign policy are things that I have -- even my critics would acknowledge, I may not be right but I know a great deal about it."

Watch Joe Biden give an emotional speech about cancer below: 

Joe Biden is currently the most experienced Democrat candidate in the running. At 76-years-old, he has served as a six-term senator and President Barack Obama's deputy for two terms. He has run twice unsuccessfully for president: once in 1988, and again in 2008. He was planning on making another attempt in 2016, but ruled himself out after the death of his 46-year-old son Beau Biden from a brain tumour.

Biden is up against 19 other hopefuls, including Senators Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Bernie Sanders. He has consistently scored well in opinion polls, but has recently suffered a bit of a spin disaster, after numerous women accused him of impropriety.