Biden and Trump clinch their parties' US presidential nominations
President Joe Biden and rival Donald Trump won enough delegates on Tuesday to secure their parties' nominations in the 2024 presidential race, according to US media projections.
The results of Tuesday's four state elections were a foregone conclusion to the Democratic and Republican party primaries, in which Biden and former President Trump had already disposed of the remaining contenders.
Biden crossed the threshold of 1,968 delegates needed by winning Georgia, a swing state where Trump faces trial for allegedly conspiring to alter the results of the last election.
Trump's victory in Washington state, meanwhile, helped him secure the 1,215 delegates needed to clinch the Republican nomination, and propel him and his "Make America Great Again" movement back into the presidential race.
Heading for a rematch of his 2020 contest, Biden lashed out in a statement against his opponent in the November election.
"I am honoured that the broad coalition of voters representing the rich diversity of the Democratic Party across the country has placed their trust in me once again to lead our party - and our country - at a time when the threat posed by Trump is greater than ever," Biden said.
Georgia, Mississippi, Washington and Hawaii offered a combined total of 161 delegates on the Republican side, and Trump, unopposed, needed 137 of them to put the race mathematically out of reach.
Trump's remarkable sweep of nearly every state primary to date led him to secure the nomination well ahead of most candidates in previous campaigns.
"Now it's back to work because we have the worst president in the history of our country -- his name is Joe Biden, also known as crooked Joe Biden -- and we must defeat him," Trump said in a video he posted on the social networking site X.
Long campaign
These results guarantee an extremely long, nearly eight-month fight for the White House between the two oldest men to ever begin their US presidencies.
With multiple open court cases against him, Trump insisted in a statement that the Republican Party is strong and united around him.
"Under corrupt Joe Biden, we are a third world country, using the injustice system to persecute his political opponent, ME!" he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
"But fear not, we will not fail. We will take back our once great country," he added.
Inculpation
Georgia, a southeastern state bordering Florida with which Trump has a complicated relationship, often leans toward the Republican candidate in presidential elections.
Its residents went for him over Hillary Clinton in 2016, but turned their backs on him in 2020, voting for Biden.
The margin of votes between the two was small, less than 12,000, and Trump never conceded defeat. He even pressured state election officials, asking them in a phone call to "find" the number of votes he needed to win.
The phone conversation was made public and the Georgia authorities filed a complaint for which Trump faces jail time.
He also had to endure the embarrassment of having his mugshot taken, which has gone around the world.
Appointment in November
As in 2020, Georgia could also be decisive in the November elections. The announced match-up is the same: Donald Trump, 77, versus Joe Biden, 81, and the gap is very close, according to the polls.
Trump has stepped up his attacks on migrants crossing the border into Mexico, whom he considers to be "poisoning the blood" of the country.
Bolstered by a combative speech last week before Congress, Biden travelled to Atlanta to rally African-American and Hispanic voters.
In the Democratic primaries, Biden has won in the US-controlled Northern Mariana Islands and in the states of Georgia, Mississippi and Washington, as well as among those living abroad.
In addition to Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Nevada are considered "swing states".
