Joe Biden wants to remind 2024 voters of a record and an agenda. Often it’s Donald Trump’s
SEATTLE — President Joe Biden is running for re-election on the strength of a record and an agenda — often that of Donald Trump.
In a hotel ballroom in Seattle, at posh homes in California and at stops in Illinois and Wisconsin, Biden has spent the past week betting on reminding voters of Trump’s presidency and highlighting his latest campaign statements. Republican opponent will work in favor of Democrat.
At a fundraiser in Seattle Friday evening, Biden brought up Trump’s recent interview with Time magazine, in which Trump said it should be left up to states to determine whether to prosecute women for abortions or monitor their pregnancies to hold.
“I urge you to read it,” Biden said.
Biden, who had another fundraiser scheduled for Saturday in Seattle before returning to the East Coast, also has plenty of other Trump material to draw on.
The president highlights how Trump has promised, if elected, to “be a dictator on Day 1,” how he has suggested that the United States would not necessarily defend its allies from aggression and how he has promised to “completely eradicate the deep state erase” in the United States. federal bureaucracy, which he blames for blocking his first-term agenda.
“And he said a lot more,” Biden said during an appearance in Chicago. ‘But the bad news is that he means what he says. He means what he says. Lest you think I’m joking, think back to January 6th. This man means what he says,” referring to the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Biden wants the 2024 election to be a referendum on Trump’s record and plans, but he also wants voters to be positive about his own policies and actions.
Biden and his allies believe the country needs to be reminded of Trump’s tenure and his bizarre and often troubling statements, especially since the Republican is no longer ubiquitous on X, formerly Twitter, nor does he appear in front of television cameras as often as he used to.
“Chaos is nothing new for Trump,” Biden said in Chicago. “His presidency was chaos. Trump is trying to make the country forget the dark and disturbing things he did while he was president. Well, we won’t let them forget.”
Biden regularly highlights Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and how he stood by as supporters violently stormed the Capitol as Congress was meeting to certify his loss to Biden. He also points to Trump’s separation of children from their families at the US-Mexico border, tax cuts pushed through by Republicans that benefited corporations and the wealthy, and his repeated efforts to undo the Affordable Care Act to make.
Biden’s barbs have become sharper lately.
He opened his fundraiser in Seattle on Friday evening by telling donors, “Thank you for the warm welcome. Please keep it on the down low because Donald Trump is sleeping. Sleepy Don.” That was a derivative of news reports that the former president had fallen asleep in a New York courtroom during his criminal trial. Trump has denied guilty charges related to a hush-money scheme to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election.
Biden also talks about Trump’s admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his self-described “love letters” with Kim Jong Un, the authoritarian leader of North Korea.
Biden regularly scolds Trump for wondering out loud during the COVID-19 pandemic whether disinfectants could be injected or ingested to combat the virus. “He didn’t inject that bleach into his body; he just put it in his hair,” Biden says, laughing each time. “But look, he has more hair than me.”
Trump’s campaign said in a statement that “their achievements speak for themselves. President Trump created the most secure border in history and peace in the world. President Trump was the first president in modern history not to enter the US into new wars. Joe Biden’s weakness has led to wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, an invasion of immigrants at our border, anti-Semitic protests on our college campuses, and crime and chaos in every American city.”
Trump does not hesitate to criticize Biden and his policies. Trump has been spending much of his time in court lately. But before and after the procedure, he often stands in front of cameras outside the courtroom and goes after Biden.
At a recent rally in Wisconsin, Trump mentioned Biden within the first two and a half minutes of his speech and referred to the president or his administration more than 60 times during his remarks.
Trump’s criticism often takes a dark turn. Last weekend, he told donors at his Florida resort that Biden was running a “Gestapo administration.”
The Gestapo was the secret police force of the Third Reich that suppressed political opposition in general and specifically targeted Jewish people for arrest during the Holocaust. Trump’s baseless comparison to Nazi-era tactics is part of his effort to deny and dismiss the charges against him, particularly his attempt to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory.
Biden’s strategy is a gamble. Voters are divided in their views on the two men’s presidencies.
An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll in April found that nearly half believed Trump’s presidency was harming the country on issues such as voting rights and election security, relations with foreign countries, abortion laws and climate change. But more than half of American adults believed a Biden presidency would hurt the country on the cost of living and immigration.
Despite all his criticism of Trump, Biden does get around to talking about his agenda and achievements. He tells his supporters about his work to boost the economy and get the country out of the pandemic. He discusses his support for abortion rights, while highlighting how Trump has taken credit for overturning Roe v. Wade, in part because of his Supreme Court nominations.
“Folks, the choice is clear,” Biden recently told supporters in the nation’s capital. “Donald Trump’s vision of America is one of revenge and retaliation.”
“I have never been more optimistic about America’s chances,” he continued. “Not because I am president, but because of the situation at the moment. The world needs us.”
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Long reported from Washington. AP White House Correspondent Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.