The US elections are approaching and are creating opposing campaigns for the Democrats and Republicans. Democrats are concerned about Biden's low approval rating.
Washington – President Joe Biden will travel to Valley Forge, Pa. on Friday. traveling to give a speech on the eve of the anniversary of the January 6, 2021 insurrection, as his campaign seeks to take a more aggressive stance early in the election year Donald Trump and to put the fight for democracy at the center of the election.
Biden will speak near a site where a group of militias gathered to form a coalition and fight for democracy in the 1770s and where George Washington set up his headquarters during the Revolutionary War to do so to take up the core theme of his presidential campaign some 250 years later. On Monday, Biden will visit Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., where nine people were fatally shot by a white supremacist in 2015.
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Before the US election: Biden's low approval ratings worry the Democrats
The two events – as well as Vice President Harris' trip to South Carolina on Saturday – signal a revitalized campaign by likely Democrats as Republicans begin their nomination process with the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 15. They come at a time when concerned Democrats are worried about Biden's low approval ratings, his age and the lack of an alternative for the party.
Biden originally planned to give the speech in Valley Forge on Saturday – the anniversary of Jan. 6 – but his campaign postponed the speech to Friday because of the poor weather forecast for the region.
Biden's campaign: Another Trump term could be the end for Democrats
Recent actions and rhetoric suggest that, after some uncertainty, Biden's campaign is settling on a central message: that American democracy would not survive another Trump presidency. With Biden's economic successes not reflected in the polls and Biden himself hesitant to announce a message on abortion rights, the emphasis on democracy has come to the fore.
“Our message is clear and simple: we are campaigning as if the fate of our democracy depended on it. Because it does,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez told reporters on Tuesday. Senior Biden campaign officials have unveiled several new measures to start the year, including ads focused on Biden's speech on Friday that seek to make even clearer the choices voters will face in November.
Biden relies on democracy – Trump’s candidacy “even worse”
The strong focus on democracy has several advantages for Biden. It's to his benefit that he likes to talk about the importance of America. It captures the unique character of his likely opponent. And it signals to voters that no matter how dissatisfied they are with Biden, Trump would be even worse. Biden's campaign has struggled to maintain a consistent message over time, and the coming weeks will show whether this shift will last. Additionally, focusing on Trump's threat poses a risk if he is not the final nominee. The former president is currently the GOP's overwhelming front-runner, and the coming primaries will show whether he can cement that status.
In the meantime, the campaign is focusing on other messages that it believes will resonate. Harris will be taking part in a “Reproductive Freedoms Tour” in Wisconsin later this month to mark the anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade put a focus on the issue of abortion rights. And the president will certainly continue to tout his economic successes and his legislative successes.
Biden's campaign against Trump: “He promises to rule like a dictator”
Biden has begun speaking more directly about Trump in recent weeks, although often at fundraisers that are not seen by average voters. His campaign chose to state this message more directly in a symbolic setting on the anniversary of the uprising to heighten the contrast. “On January 6, 2021, we witnessed a very different vision of America, a vision that was one of revenge, retaliation and an attack on our democracy,” Rodriguez said. “It was the first time in our country’s history that a president tried to prevent a peaceful transfer of power.”
Michael Tyler, the campaign's communications director, highlighted some of Trump's recent statements and his promise to retaliate against his political opponents if he wins the 2024 election. “He promises to rule like a dictator and use the government to retaliate against his political enemies while he and his MAGA supporters encourage and cheer political violence across the country,” he said.
Trump campaign blames Biden for his actions against Trump's candidacy
Trump campaign advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles released a memo on Tuesday outlining their perspective on the presidential race. They blamed Biden for the numerous criminal charges against Trump and for court decisions that declared Trump ineligible – essentially arguing that the current president was the greater threat to the American system. “Please make no mistake: Joe Biden and his allies are a real and compelling threat to our democracy,” they wrote. “Indeed, they are waging a war against them the likes of which has never been seen in our history.
Trump leads in the polls: Republicans support his anti-democracy
While most of the remarks from Biden campaign aides focused on Trump, who leads by a wide margin in the primary polls, they also pointed to some of the other Republicans in the field. “The 2024 candidates have made it clear time and time again that they not only accept but fully support Donald Trump’s anti-democratic and anti-freedom rhetoric and actions,” Rodriguez said.
Some aides also pointed to Republican efforts to rewrite America's racist history, such as former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who did not cite slavery as the cause of the Civil War, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who changed the curriculum in his state changes. “They also want to take away our freedom to learn by banning books and rewriting and erasing important parts of American history, because if they don't like it, you don't have the right to read it,” Tyler said. “And you don’t have to believe me, just look at Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, how they feel about American slavery and the Civil War.”
Biden stands against “white supremacists”
Biden's trip to South Carolina is also an attempt to assuage a concern among some Democrats as support from Black voters declines. Biden's team is trying to combine Trump's anti-democratic impulses with Republicans' racial rhetoric to portray an opposition party that is mounting an attack on core American values. “Whether it's white supremacists invading the historic American city of Charlottesville, the attack on our nation's capital on January 6th, or a white supremacist murdering churchgoers at Mother Emanuel nearly nine years ago,” said deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks, “America is concerned about the rise in political violence and determined to confront it.”
To the author
Matt Viser is a White House reporter for The Washington Post. He joined the Post in October 2018 and covered the midterms and 2020 presidential election before moving to the White House to cover President Biden's administration. He previously served as deputy Washington bureau chief for the Boston Globe.
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