Biden's Vital Criticism of Trump's Personality Potentially Reveals Challenges in His Own Presidential Bid
The current president is hammering the presumptive Republican nominee as a crook and a bigot who got slapped with a sexual assault lawsuit and is now going completely bonkers due to his 2020 defeat, leaving him unstable.
This intense portrayal by an incumbent president of his opposition is one of the bitterest in recent history and is aimed at showing the 45th president as totally unfit for a repeat of the office he was forced out of in disgrace in 2021. With two impeachments, a criminal conviction, and an attempt to reverse the last election, Trump gave Biden plenty of material to work with.
However, Biden's re-election campaign might also be revealing a struggle that is far from what the president might have wished, as he fights to regain standing across numerous electorate segments and faces a challenging route to the 270 electoral votes necessary to win in November.
For months, Biden's team has been maintaining that once voters notice the difference between the president and his predecessor, the crucial importance of the election will tilt in Biden's favor. They argue that voters might require reminders about the chaos and discord of Trump's first term that ended in the worst attack on democracy in decades.
But summer is here, and the election is only about four months away. All indications suggest the race is still shaping up as much of a referendum on Biden, and the public's waning sense of economic security, as it is on the potential hazard to the rule of law a second term for Trump would imply. Trump's campaign is thus escalating an effort to highlight the perceived consequences of a second term in the White House for him, who has vowed to utilize presidential power for personal vengeance, while conservative groups polish blueprints for a revamp of the bureaucracy, energy, and economic policy.
Biden's best chance to change the conversation comes during his first debate with Trump on CNN in six days – a confrontation that the Biden campaign is working hard to shape with daily slams on Trump, aiming to appeal to demographic groups the president hopes will get him back to the White House. There have been minor shifts toward the president in some polling since Trump's criminal conviction in his hush money case in New York last month. However, the race has been largely stable without a clear leader for months, raising concerns for a president who is asking voters to reward him with another term.
Biden's opportunity for a reset
The debate on Thursday will also offer the president the chance to counter the grim portrait that Trump is sketching of him in front of tens of millions of television viewers. Trump portrays Biden as a clueless old man who can't even complete a sentence. While this portrayal is exaggerated, polls show that most Americans are concerned about the age and mental capacity of a president who has visibly slowed down physically in recent years and would be 86 by the end of a second term. Trump isn't much younger, and if he wins, he'd be the oldest president, at 78, to begin a second term.
Biden has been trying out his character attacks on Trump for weeks at fundraising events, and these are now being echoed by campaign officials. At a fundraiser attended by former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in northern Virginia on Tuesday, Biden painted a grim picture that included a warning that his rival is mounting an all-out assault on the legal system.
“The threat Trump poses would be more severe in a second term than it was in his first term. You know... I think he lost it when he lost in 2020. He can't accept it. It's literally driving him crazy... He's obsessed with losing in 2020, and he's clearly a little unhinged right now.”
Biden's campaign has been seizing the offensive all week as it prepares the ground for the message it hopes Americans will take away from the debate. On Monday, it unveiled a hard-hitting new ad. “This election is between a criminal who is only out for himself,” the narrator says as Trump's mugshot appears on screen. “And a president who is fighting for your family.”
The strategy removes all doubt about how Biden intends to use Trump's criminal conviction and his three other indictments to discredit him. The ex-president's campaign will counter by alleging Biden's strategy is an attempt to weaponize the justice system against him. But since Trump's campaign is already spinning that narrative, Biden may have little to lose.
The ad, part of a $50 million ad buy in June online, on battleground state TV channels, and on national cable, references the hush-money trial and Trump's losses in a defamation suit against the writer E. Jean Carroll and a civil fraud trial. Dark, monochrome photos of Trump at court display captions such as “Convicted – 34 Felonies”; “Liable for Sexual Assault”; “Committed Financial Fraud." Then, the video shifts to full color with a shot of a beaming Biden surrounded by workers, highlighting his efforts to reduce health care costs and take on corporations. The contrast is impossible to miss, and the Biden campaign can only hope it finally takes root in voters' minds.
Biden Takes Swipes at Trump; Intensifies Campaign Ads Amidst Elections
The Biden camp is currently targeting crucial segments of its electorate showing signs of dissatisfaction. Yesterday, on the Juneteenth holiday symbolizing the end of slavery in the US, a fierce attack on Trump was launched to discourage his attempts at courting Black voters, an integral Democratic voting sector.
"In light of a lifetime filled with racism and on this special day, the bare minimum Trump should do is give Black America a respite from his campaign's racist, shallow appeals," Jasmine Harris, the campaign's head of Black media, stated in a release. "Black voters have had enough – and they're ready to put an end to Trump's political ambition."
The campaign also circulated a list of controversies sparked by Trump's race-related blunders throughout his life, such as his advocacy for the execution of five Black teenagers for a sexual assault case in Central Park, New York, which later proved their innocence, and his longstanding racially charged conspiracy theory concerning former President Barack Obama's birthplace.
During the 2020 election, CNN exit polls revealed Trump capturing approximately 12% of Black American votes. However, some recent surveys suggest this figure could now be around 20%. Such numbers in 2024 could narrow Biden's lead in crucial swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, where strong Black turnout in urban centers like Philadelphia, Detroit, and Milwaukee is vital to offset Trump's rural favoritism.
On Thursday, the Biden campaign shifted focus towards Hispanic voters – another critical voting demographic where polls indicate underperformance. The campaign sank a significant amount into the Copa América – an international soccer tournament happening in Atlanta, featuring teams from the Western hemisphere – as Argentina's World Cup-winning team led the event Thursday night.
A new ad starring Biden and criticizing Trump will air during games over the coming weeks as the campaign strives to remind Latino voters about Trump’s chaotic leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic. "Four years ago, we were shut down. Stadiums were vacant. Trump let us down," a voiceover says over images of empty stadiums, implying that Biden revitalized the nation and created 15.6 million jobs. The ad then shows Biden in what appears to be a sports bar as the soundtrack plays the "Goalllllllllllllll!" cheer popular among South American commentators when the ball hits the back of the net.
According to an NBC News poll in February, Biden and Trump are neck-and-neck among Latinos, a demographic that historically votes for Democrats. Yet, in 2020, exit polls showed Biden securing 65% to 32% of this crucial demographic. Unless he can earn similar numbers once again, crucial swing states like Arizona and Nevada could slip away, and even states like Georgia and Pennsylvania, which he won four years ago, could be at risk due to smaller Hispanic populations.
Biden's character assaults on Trump represent his strongest effort to remind Americans of the gravity of their choice in November. These potent attacks would be striking even if Trump were a novice candidate vulnerable to negative advertising. However, voters are already well-acquainted with Trump's persona.
Thus, the delicately balanced race raises an uncomfortable question for Democrats: What if enough swayable voters are fully aware of Trump's past misdeeds and remember the chaos and discord of his presidency – yet remain unwilling to support Biden?
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In responding to Trump's portrayal of him as senile and unfit, Biden stated, "The threat Trump poses would be more severe in a second term than it was in his first term. He can't accept his 2020 defeat and it's driving him crazy." Furthermore, Biden's campaign has been using advertisements to label Trump as a criminal, highlighting his convictions and allegations of financial fraud.
