Biden clinches nomination, asks voters to 'defend our democracy'

(Reuters) -- President Joe Biden won enough delegates on Tuesday to seal the Democratic Party's nomination, with a face-off against former President Donald Trump looming in what would be the first U.S. presidential election rematch in nearly 70 years.

Biden needed 1,968 delegates to win the nomination, a number Edison Research said he passed on Tuesday night as results began to come in from the primary contest in Georgia, ahead of expected results from Mississippi, Washington state, the Northern Mariana Islands and Democrats living abroad.

Biden issued a statement after the news, taking aim at what he called Trump's "campaign of resentment, revenge, and retribution that threatens the very idea of America."

"Voters now have a choice to make about the future of this country. Are we going to stand up and defend our democracy or let others tear it down? Will we restore the right to choose and protect our freedoms or let extremists take them away?" he said.

Trump was expected to clinch the Republican Party's nomination later on Tuesday as four states held contests, including Georgia, the battleground where Trump faces criminal charges for his efforts to overturn the state's 2020 results.

The outcome is essentially predetermined, after Trump's last remaining rival for the Republican nomination, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, ended her presidential campaign following Trump's dominant performance last week on Super Tuesday, when he won 14 of 15 state contests.

Biden, meanwhile, faced only token opposition in the Democratic primary campaign, though liberal activists frustrated by his support for Israel's war in Gaza have convinced a sizable minority of Democrats to vote "uncommitted" in protest.

Both men have already turned their