US president Joe Biden said late on Friday he has decided to run for a second term and would announce his campaign “relatively soon”.
Speaking to reporters before leaving Ireland West Airport on the last leg of his four-day visit to Ireland, Mr Biden was asked whether the last few days had changed his calculus on when to make his announcement on his plans to run.
“No, no I have already made that calculus. We will announce it relatively soon.
“The trip here just reinforced my sense of optimism about what can be done. I told you my plan is to run again.”
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He said he had learned a few interesting things he had not known about his family tree from the Irish Genealogical Society. “It was a good trip,” he added.
Mr Biden and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar spoke to the US media briefly before the US president’s departure from Ireland, after Mr Biden’s address in Ballina, Co Mayo on Friday night.
Mr Biden arrived from Ballina and was met at Ireland West Airport by the Taoiseach and a delegation that included the Irish Ambassador to the US, Geraldine Byrne Nason, and the US ambassador to Ireland, Claire Cronin.
The US president spent several minutes saying goodbye to those waiting on the tarmac at Ireland West Airport before boarding the aircraft for Dublin, from which he was to return home to the US.
Mr Varadkar said he was very happy at how the four-day trip had gone “and I know they are very happy on the US side too”.
He said a lot of work had gone into Mr Biden’s Ballina speech from different sources and it had gone down well with the crowd. “It really had the feel of a homecoming,” he said. “Ballina was looking amazing.”
[ The Irish Times view on Ireland and the United States: the special relationshipOpens in new window ]
Mr Varadkar stressed that there was a lot of substantial business done on both sides. “I hoped at the start of it that it would help cement US-Irish relations. They have never been better,” he said.
“There was a huge amount of the visit that was about President Biden and his family connections, but there was a lot of business done as well.
“It was a really big delegation, two cabinet secretaries and 15 to 20 members of congress. There was a huge number of other meetings happening around the place.
“Without any doubt we have an ally in the White House and we have an administration that is looking out for Ireland, and that’s a really special thing to have.
“We have a president and an administration that is interested in a small country of five million people. It’s priceless and very important to us,” Mr Varadkar said.
Ireland West Airport chief executive Joe Gilmore said welcoming a US president for the first time had been a “once in a lifetime” experience for those working at the airport.
He said the airport’s founder, Msgr James Horan, would have been a “really proud man. We are happy to be delivering his legacy here.” - Additional reporting PA/Reuters
