SEATTLE — President Joe Biden is running for reelection on a record and an agenda — often that of Donald Trump.
In a hotel ballroom in Seattle, in fancy houses in California and at Stops in Illinois and Wisconsin Last week, Biden bet that reminding voters of Trump's presidency and highlighting his Republican opponent's recent campaign statements will work to the Democrat's advantage.
At a fundraiser in Seattle on Friday evening, Biden brought up Trump's recent interview with Time magazine, through which Trump said it needs to be left to states to determine whether to prosecute women for abortions or monitor their pregnancies.
“I urge you to read it,” Biden said.
Biden, who headlined one other fundraiser in Seattle on Saturday before returning to the East Coast, also has loads of other Trump material to attract on.
The president emphasizes, like Trump has promised to be “a day one dictator” if electedhow he has suggested that the United States wouldn’t necessarily protect its allies from aggression and the way he has promised to “totally wipe out the deep state” within the 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. If you don't think I'm joking, just think back to January 6th. This guy means what he says,” referring to the revolt on 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 view his own policies and actions positively.
Biden and his allies imagine the country must be reminded of Trump's time in office and his outlandish and sometimes troubling statements, especially since the Republican is not any longer ubiquitous on X, formerly Twitter, or in front of television cameras as often like in old times.
“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 as president. Well, we won’t let them forget.”
Biden ceaselessly highlights Trump's efforts overturn the outcomes of the 2020 election and the way he stood by as supporters violently stormed the stadium Capitol as Congress met for confirmation his defeat against Biden. He also points to a separation from Trump Children from their families on the US-Mexico borderRepublican tax cuts that benefited corporations and the rich, in addition to his repeated efforts repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Biden's barbs have turn into increasingly sharper recently.
He opened his Seattle fundraiser Friday night by telling donors, “Thank you for the warm welcome. Please keep it quiet because Donald Trump is sleeping. Sleepy Don.” This was a variation on news reports that the previous president had dozed off during his criminal trial in a New York courtroom. Trump has pleaded not guilty to 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” to Kim Jong Un, the authoritarian leader of North Korea.
Biden ceaselessly chides Trump for considering out loud throughout the COVID-19 pandemic whether disinfectants could possibly be injected or ingested to combat the virus. “That bleach he didn’t inject into his body; “He just stuck it in his hair,” Biden says each time, laughing. “But you see, he has more hair than me.”
Trump's campaign said in a press release: “Your record speaks for itself.” President Trump has created probably the most secure border in history and probably the most secure peace on this planet. President Trump was the primary president in modern history to not involve the United States in recent wars. Joe Biden’s weakness has led to wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, a surge of immigrants at our border, anti-Semitic protests on our college campuses, and crime and chaos in every American city.”
Trump is just not afraid to criticize Biden and his policies. Trump has been spending much of his time recently sitting in court. But before and after the trial, he often stands in front of cameras outside the courtroom and attacks Biden.
At a recent rally in Wisconsin, Trump mentioned Biden inside the first two and a half minutes of his speech, referring to the president or his administration greater than 60 times in 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 key police of the Third Reich that suppressed political opposition normally and specifically aimed toward arresting Jewish people throughout the Holocaust. Trump's baseless comparison to Nazi-era tactics is an element of his efforts to disclaim and deflect the allegations against him, particularly his try and overturn Biden's victory in 2020.
Biden's strategy is a chance. Voters' views on each men's presidencies are divided.
An April survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that almost half believed Trump's presidency had harmed the country by way of voting rights and election security. Relations with foreign countries, Abortion laws and climate change. But greater than half of U.S. adults thought Biden's presidency had hurt the country to the price of living And immigration.
“Folks, the choice is clear,” Biden recently told his supporters within the nation’s capital. “Donald Trump’s vision of America is a vision 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 current situation. The world needs us.”
Reported for a very long time from Washington. AP White House correspondent Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.
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