Biden campaign reveals central tactic to target Trump at first debate – but it could backfire with voters
Part of President Joe Biden’s argument against another four years under Donald Trump will involve parading the former president’s new status as a convicted felon during the debate in Atlanta on Thursday.
The president’s re-election campaign has made clear that a central argument and strategy at CNN’s general election debate will center on the 34 charges against Trump.
Mitch Landrieu, co-chairman of the Biden campaign, said the “American people must come to terms” with the fact that the presumptive Republican nominee is a convicted felon.
“I’ll let the president say what he’s going to say. But the fact is that sometimes the sky is blue and Donald Trump is a convicted felon,” Landrieu told NBC host Peter Alexander on Sunday.
But the argument could backfire, as most polls show Republicans — and even many independent voters — undeterred by the outcome of the Manhattan hush-money case so far.
President Joe Biden is likely to make Trump’s felony conviction a major argument during Thursday’s debate. Biden’s campaign co-chairman, Mitch Landrieu, says it doesn’t matter how the candidates perform in Atlanta next week
63-year-old Donald Share voter from Iowa told the Des Moines Register last week that he is definitely voting for Trump because of his criminal conviction.
“His convictions on these charges are part of the reason I reached this decision,” Share said.
“The more they try to get him out of the picture, the stronger they make him,” he added. “I, for one, believe the allegations are false.”
However, Landrieu still argues that the case will have consequences for Trump without Biden having to point this out during the debate.
“The person who wants to be president should sit with his parole officer before actually going to the debate,” the campaign co-chair complained. “And so it’s just a fact. But it’s not just calling Donald Trump a convicted felon. It’s about his behavior and his character.’
Landrieu also claims that the way Biden (81) performs on stage against Trump (78) on Thursday does not really make a difference to the course of the elections.
“I expect President Biden will do an excellent job, just as he has done in recent debates. It doesn’t really matter how Donald Trump appears,” he emphasized.
“People will know that he is a convicted felon who has been impeached twice and has been found to have defamed someone, sexually assaulted someone and bankrupted him six times.”
Biden was convicted last month of 34 charges in the hush money trial in Manhattan
Biden and Trump will face off in their first general election debate on Thursday in Atlanta, Georgia
Trump was found guilty by a Manhattan jury in late May of 34 crimes related to his hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
There are three other pending criminal cases against the former president – one in Washington, DC, one in Fulton County, Georgia and one in Florida.
Following Trump’s guilty verdict, former President Biden still leads by just one point in a hypothetical 2024 contest.
Only 40 percent say Trump’s conviction will not affect how they will cast their vote in a post-conviction Emerson poll.
Still, more than a quarter (27 percent) say Trump’s guilty verdict makes them more likely to vote for him as president. And 33 percent say it makes them less likely to support him.