President Joe Biden has personally instructed his campaign staff to more aggressively attack former President Donald Trump, CNN reported, as the president refines his strategy against Trump, focusing on a number of key issues, ahead of their expected rematch.
US President Joe Biden departs for California to attend campaign reception on February 20, 2024, in ... [+]
The president reportedly told his senior aides in recent days to focus on the “crazy s—-” Trump says in public, two sources familiar with the directive reportedly told CNN, as it’s become clear that Trump is all but certain to win the GOP nomination after decisive victories in the first three primaries.
In one of his most recent and sharpest criticisms of Trump, Biden called the former president’s invitation to Russia to invade any NATO country that doesn’t meet spending requirements “appalling and dangerous” in a statement telling voters “freedom and democracy itself are on the ballot in November.”
Casting Trump as a threat to democracy is a prominent theme for Biden, who has repeatedly criticized Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots and his praise of dictators, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, telling an audience in Valley Forge, Penn., in a Jan. 6 anniversary speech Trump is “willing to sacrifice our democracy to put himself in power.”
In the same speech, Biden rebuked Trump for mocking the hammer attack against Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband, referring to Trump as “a sick . . .” before trailing off (in private, Biden reportedly doesn’t mince words and calls Trump a “sick f—-,” Politico reported).
Biden has also rebuked Trump for his dismissive remarks about U.S. service members, including former South Carolina Nikki Haley’s husband, a National Guardsman who is currently deployed: “What happened to her husband? Where is he?” Trump said at a recent campaign rally, to which Biden responded on X with, “We know he thinks our troops are ‘suckers,’” referencing claims made by former Trump Chief of Staff John Kelly that Trump used the term to refer to military members who died in World War I.
Abortion has also been a focal point for Biden, including both Trump’s appointment of conservative Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade and his reported support for a 16-week abortion ban, and Biden has accused Trump of “running scared” of articulating his abortion stance in public.
Trump’s campaign has focused heavily on Biden’s border policies in its attacks on the president, but Trump has largely centered his rhetoric surrounding the president on his own legal woes, casting them as a product of a justice system working at Biden’s behest. Two of Trump’s criminal cases were brought by state prosecutors, however, while Trump’s federal classified documents and Jan. 6 cases are being handled by a special prosecutor independent of the Justice Department.
Biden and Trump appear to be headed for a historic rematch in November following Trump’s commanding victories in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. Polls show the two are neck and neck in the hypothetical contest, with Trump leading Biden by 1.3 points, according to Real Clear Politics’ polling average, while both candidates continue to post relatively high unfavorability ratings.
Repeated gaffes from both Trump, 77, and Biden, 81, on the campaign trail have heightened concerns that they are both too old to run for president. DOJ Special Counsel Robert Hur’s description of Biden in a recent report explaining why he decided not to charge the president in the agency’s probe of his handling of classified documents after leaving office amplified those concerns, with Hur warning Biden could portray himself before a jury as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Hur also noted several instances in DOJ interviews when Biden’s memory appeared “significantly limited.” Trump, in Michigan over the weekend, misstated the date of the state’s primary (he said it was Nov. 27, when it’s actually Feb. 27), and he mixed up former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) during a campaign speech last month.
Trump’s campaign predicts he could win enough delegates to clinch the nomination by March 12, when Hawaii, Georgia, Washington and Mississippi, will hold their primaries. Haley, Trump’s only remaining competitor in the race, has refused to heed calls from Trump and his GOP allies to drop out of the race so the party can coalesce behind Trump, doubling down on her commitment to stay in the contest past Super Tuesday on March 5 in a speech Tuesday from South Carolina.