Former Secretary of State John Kerry endorses former VP Joe Biden for president

NEW HAMPTON, Iowa -- Former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry announced Thursday that he is endorsing Joe Biden for president, providing a high-profile boost for the former vice president with just under two months to go until the first primary votes are cast.

The endorsement comes as Biden continues his eight-day, 18 county “No Malarkey” bus tour through Iowa, which Kerry is set to join on Friday morning.

“I believe Joe Biden is the President our country desperately needs right now, not because I’ve known Joe so long, but because I know Joe so well. I’ve never before seen the world more in need of someone who on day one can begin the incredibly hard work of putting back together the world Donald Trump has smashed apart,” Kerry wrote in a statement released Thursday by the Biden campaign.

Kerry, the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer during the 2004 presidential election, faced an uncertain path to the nomination not dissimilar to the one Biden now faces, and was, like Biden, lagging in the polls in Iowa in the final stretch to caucus day.

Biden referenced Kerry's comeback in the Iowa caucuses on Wednesday while campaigning at Iowa State University in Ames.

"I remember at this time John Kerry was getting his rear end kicked. He was, I think, number four. And he came back and he won," Biden said.

"We had planned all along after Thanksgiving, we were going to be on the ground a lot more, going to smaller communities and to make sure we were pressing the flesh and asking.”

Biden is neck and neck in the polls with three other top Democratic contenders for the party's presidential nomination: Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders

In a tweet highlighting his endorsement, Kerry underscored that his support of Biden is because he knows him well and feels "he'll be ready on day one to put back together the country and the world that Donald Trump has broken apart."

Kerry's criticism of Trump came on the heels of a video released by the Biden campaign shortly after President Trump touched down on U.S. soil following the NATO summit.

The video features Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson all appearing to laugh on camera in reference to Trump.

"A President the world is laughing at," reads a text slate in the video.

Biden also talked about Trump being mocked on the world stage at nearly every one of his campaign events in Iowa on Wednesday.