WASHINGTON – When he was president Donald Trump for this week in his native New York the beginning of his criminal trial charged with falsifying business records, President Biden plans to campaign in his hometown of Scranton, a Pennsylvania battleground.
Biden’s counterprogramming itinerary includes three days of economy-focused events in Scranton, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, while his campaign is in the spotlight. Trump’s stance on abortion.
The result will be dueling visuals of the two candidates, who Biden’s allies hope will have a lot to say to voters, even as the president remains silent on his GOP challenger’s legal troubles.
“We’re really leaving him alone,” a Biden aide said of Trump’s trial, which began this week.
Biden’s campaign speech in Scranton on Tuesday goes beyond Tax Day Monday, Biden aides said. They said that if President Trump is elected, he will claim that he will give tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans at the expense of the middle class.
One of Biden’s aides said: “We think Trump is very sensitive on this issue.”
But according to Biden’s allies, the differences between the two candidates on abortion are seen by the Biden team as the deciding factor that could propel him to the top in the November election.
“The campaign thinks the abortion issue is the margin of victory they need,” said one Biden ally.
According to a campaign official, nearly all of the ads the Biden campaign is currently running are about abortion.
Biden’s team also took action faster than usual This was in response to Trump’s comments on abortion last week.
Monday, when Trump said there should be an issue released to the states and the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Biden, who takes credit for overturning Wade, took time out of his schedule at an unusually early hour that morning to pre-record a response that would be ready to go.
“You don’t buy Joe Biden’s time that early,” one campaign official said to emphasize how important the issue is to the president.
After Trump said Friday that “we overturned Roe v. Wade” and said the decision to leave the issue up to the states had worked “so brilliantly,” Vice President Kamala Harris quickly added a pre-planned response. campaign speech Arizona on their heels state Supreme Court decision Since 1864, an almost complete ban on abortion can be applied.
Now, Biden’s team is planning how to celebrate Florida’s six-week abortion ban taking effect in the next few weeks, according to a Biden aide. The aide said that voters will hear more directly from the president with statements and actions related to abortion.
Harris has been the most vocal member of the administration on abortion, the strategy is expected to continue.
While Biden’s aides are determined to make sure Trump fails in any attempt to take an ambiguous position on abortion as he faces the general electorate, they also want to try to put the former president on the defensive on economic issues because he is busy. .
Biden’s campaign has long believed that the most effective strategy against Trump is to focus on him only as a presidential candidate, not as the candidate at the center of the legal drama. Biden aides say that won’t change this week, even with media coverage expected to kick off the first of several potential trials Trump will face this week.
“The contrast that President Biden will run is that he has your back, and if it’s a message that moves the needle, it moves the needle,” said one Democratic strategist close to the White House. “And he was helped a lot by Donald Trump defending himself in court.”
Not all of Biden’s allies agree with Trump’s silent approach to criminal justice.
Another Democratic strategist says, “Relying on these old norms and recycled communication clichés like ‘don’t give him oxygen’ or ‘stay out of the way’ when the opponent is blowing himself up is outdated.” “Biden must insult, engage and thwart the Trump circus.”
Trump’s trial in New York is expected to last between six and eight weeks. He shall attend in person every working day, except on Wednesdays, when the court shall not be held. Trump campaign officials said the former president plans to hold rallies and campaign events on Wednesday and Saturday.
Ahead of the trial, the Trump campaign is raising funds to overcome its legal challenges, warning supporters in a text message Saturday that “within 48 hours, AMERICA WILL Cease to Exist.”
While in Scranton, Biden will revive the main economic argument of his 2020 campaign — that he focuses on the needs of Americans like those in Scranton, while Trump tries to deliver for those who can afford to live on Park Avenue in Manhattan. During a town hall-style event near Scranton in the final weeks of the 2020 campaign, Biden claimed that “guys like Trump who inherit everything and squander what they inherit are the people I always have a problem with.”
On Tuesday, he will highlight measures in his 2025 budget proposal that the White House says will benefit the middle class, such as raising taxes on billionaires, according to Biden aides.
To make his point, Biden aides said he would reiterate what Trump told donors at a recent private dinner. will keep their taxes down.
The president will deliver different versions of that message at other stops he and his campaign see as potential lynchpins in the 2024 election. Pennsylvania, as well as Wisconsin and Michigan – the Democrats’ so-called blue wall – helped push Biden past the 270-vote threshold four years ago.
“It’s all about the blue wall,” said a Biden campaign official. “If we don’t win these states, we’re going to lose.”
After Tuesday’s event in Scranton, Biden will host an official White House event focusing on manufacturing in the Pittsburgh area, which the president has long seen as a cornerstone of his pro-union economic policies. He will wrap up the week with a campaign event in the Philadelphia area in November, where he will focus on what he believes are threats to American democracy.