Joe Biden’s reelection campaign mainly avoided criticizing Donald Trump by name. Consider this as the first official shot being fired.
Hours before Trump was set to appear in a primetime interview with Fox News anchor Sean Hannity, and on the same day the former president indicated a third criminal charge is likely due, Biden’s team criticized Trump for appearing at “softball townhalls.”
It also referenced the upcoming Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, when the GOP will officially announce its choice for president in the forthcoming year.
Kevin Munoz, a spokesman for the reelection campaigns of President Biden and Senator Kamala Harris, said that in a year, Republicans will have their convention in Wisconsin, not far from where Trump promised his ‘America First’ agenda would bring 13,000 manufacturing jobs and a new Foxconn plant to the state.
Munoz said since launching his campaign, the former president has not returned to Wisconsin, nor has he offered an explanation for his failure to bring about the promised American manufacturing boom.
The remarks have changed the dynamics of Biden’s reelection campaign. Biden has refrained chiefly from disparaging the Republican field of presidential candidates, including his erstwhile opponent Trump, since declaring in April that he would seek a second term.
It’s a sign that Trump is seen as the GOP primary field’s most dangerous contender.
Biden has relied on the Democratic National Committee to attack his Republican rivals up to this point. Some Democrats have worried that Biden’s campaign is moving at too sluggish of a pace, but his more robust stance on Trump may ease their minds.
Trump barely lost Wisconsin to Biden in 2020 after winning it by one point in 2016. The manufacturing project Trump previously hailed as the “eighth wonder of the world” ultimately died out when the corporation cut back its goals, which Munoz was alluding to in Tuesday’s campaign statement.
The scathing attack also hints that Biden is aware of the need to improve his reputation in the economy with voters. According to a study conducted in June by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, only 35% of respondents are happy with how he is handling the economy. In the weeks leading up to the president’s speech on “Bidenomics” later this week in Philadelphia, Biden and his top surrogates have traveled the country to promote the policy.
