Joe Biden 2020 race: MeToo scandal, 'love' for Obama and other things you should know

Former Vice President Joe Biden launched a bid for Democratic party's presidential nomination for the 2020 election on Thursday as the party's instant frontrunner. Biden, 76, announced the third presidential bid of his career by video on YouTube and other social media.

"We are in the battle for the soul of this nation," Biden said in a stark video released online, calling on voters to deny Republican U.S. President Donald Trump a second term in office.

As speculation about his bid mounted, Biden faced new questions about his longtime propensity for touching and kissing strangers at political events, with several women coming forward to say he had made them feel uncomfortable.

Biden struggled in his response to the concerns, at times joking about his behaviour. But ultimately, he apologized and said he recognized standards for personal conduct had evolved in the wake of the #MeToo movement.

His candidacy will face numerous other questions, including whether he is too old and too centrist for a Democratic Party yearning for fresh faces and increasingly propelled by its more vocal liberal wing. Still, he starts as the leader of the pack in opinion polls of a Democratic field that now will total 20 contenders seeking the chance to challenge President Donald Trump, the likely Republican nominee, in November 2020.

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. #Joe2020 https://t.co/jzaQbyTEz3

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 25, 2019

He joined 19 other contenders seeking the chance to challenge President Donald Trump, the likely Republican nominee, in November 2020.

Biden's love for Obama and hate for Trump has often been mocked with a large number of hilarious memes flooded on the internet.

Obama:tell the world were brosBiden:*whispers* were brosObama:bro why'd u whisperBiden:ur my world broObama:bro pic.twitter.com/buCUU3nSI2

— josh hutcherdad (@obsidianhag) March 28, 2016

Biden and Trump fighting each other pic.twitter.com/HzNClOzXMQ

— julia reinstein 🚡 (@juliareinstein) March 22, 2018