Scenes from Biden's first encounter with the
media in months
The Trump campaign took credit for smoking Biden out
of his basement — only to see him give a gaffe-free performance.
By
CHRISTOPHER CADELAGO and NATASHA KORECKI
06/30/2020
06:36 PM EDT
WILMINGTON,
Del. — Joe Biden made the short drive from his now-famous basement, jogged into
the high school gym where he usually votes and excoriated President Donald
Trump as failing miserably to protect the health and safety of Americans.
Then, after
laying out his own plan to slow the coronavirus, the presumptive Democratic
nominee made what now amounts to news in this bizarre election: He opened the
floor to questions from reporters, waving off aides when they tried to cut him
off and marveling at how strange this has all become.
“This is
the most unusual campaign, I think, in modern history,” Biden told a small
group of reporters seated inside large white circles traced on the gym floor.
Biden reiterated his doctor’s orders that he stay close to home and not host
too many events.
It had been
nearly three months since he held his last news conference, and that one took
place in a choppy virtual setting. In his absence, Biden has faced relentless
badgering from the president and his allies, who accused him of hiding out at
home and challenged his mental acuity. On Tuesday, Trump’s campaign took credit
for smoking out the former vice president. But whatever fire they were hoping
would consume him didn’t seem to catch.
“You’re a
lyin’ dog,” Biden smirked when a Fox producer promised it would be his last
inquiry. The producer allowed that, at 65 years old, he himself sometimes loses
his train of thought. “You've got 12 years on me, sir,” he said. “Have you been
tested for some degree of cognitive decline?”
Biden, who
can grow defensive when challenged, took another approach.
“I've been
tested, and I'm constantly tested,” he said. “I can hardly wait to compare my
cognitive capability to the cognitive capability of the man I'm running
against.”
Biden
couldn’t have picked a more fortuitous time to reemerge. His 20-minute speech
tearing into Trump for mishandling the coronavirus was carried live by all
three cable networks. So too was his 30-minute question-and-answer session,
which came moments after Anthony Fauci warned that daily new cases of the virus
could surpass 100,000. If that wasn't fodder enough for the Democrat, reports
that Russia offered bounties for killing U.S. troops — and questions about what
Trump did or didn't know about it — have consumed the White House for days.
Against that backdrop, Biden parried 16 questions from
seven reporters, including three from Fox News.
Biden said
he had yet to receive intelligence briefings as the presumptive Democratic
presidential nominee but that he may request a classified briefing on the
Afghanistan matter.
He also
appeared to commit to releasing a shortlist of potential Black, female Supreme
Court nominees ahead of November’s general election.
Asked at
another point whether he’s preparing to debate Trump, Biden said, “I can hardly
wait.”
Biden has
been a public figure for nearly five decades. The focus on his latest outing
reflects the strange reality of a campaign in which he’s grown his support in
polls by stepping aside.
“They’ve
allowed Trump to just implode,” said Pete Giangreco, a Democratic strategist.
And by releasing a renewed coronavirus plan on Tuesday, Biden was able to keep
the heat on Trump as the president struggles to contain a resurgence of the
virus across the country, including in states key to his reelection hopes.
“There’s
the old adage, ‘when your opponent’s drowning, throw him an anvil,'"
Giangreco added. "They did it today with the coronavirus plan to
underscore he’s blown this.”
Trump has
attempted to pin the “Sleepy Joe” label on Biden and Republican negative ads
have sought to portray Biden as mentally compromised, but so far, it hasn’t
stuck. Two national polls last week show Biden with a double-digit lead over
Trump as Americans demonstrated uneasiness about the president’s ability to
handle coronavirus.
Biden only
recently began attending events outside of his Delaware home. His fundraisers
and town hall-style events are held virtually. While Biden hadn’t held a press
briefing in months, he has sat for national TV interviews. He’s also routinely
taken part in one-on-one interviews with local news outlets in battleground
states. Biden boasted on Tuesday that his efforts had reached 200 million
people.
By signing
up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can
unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google
Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Biden has
had a run of good fortune since he emerged from the primary this spring. The
virus obliterated what little appetite Democrats still had for infighting when
Bernie Sanders dropped out. Biden's last presser, on April 2, looks like a
relic from another era: He was asked that day to explain why his health care
plan for a public option was preferable to Sanders’ Medicare for All proposal.
Tim
Murtaugh, the Trump campaign spokesman, said it shouldn’t be “a news event in
itself” that Biden took questions from the press. “That it’s notable is
embarrassing for him,” he said. “This is something a national candidate should
do as a matter of course.”
Murtaugh’s
harshest critiques, however, were aimed at the reporters in the room.
“If that’s
the type of questions media will ask, it’s a wonder why Biden hid from them at
all. In one answer about concerns over his cognitive abilities, Biden said he
gets tested all the time. If that’s so, did he take the cognitive exam he
previously hadn’t taken? What were the results? Why is he tested frequently, is
someone worried about him?”
Biden’s
campaign sees the effort to make an issue of his lack of press conferences as a
last-ditch distraction tactic. His aides say Trump has no message and has
offered no rationale for a second term. “We have ignored it. We do not care. We
see it as totally a flailing, losing campaign,” a Biden adviser said Tuesday.
The adviser
said to expect Biden to hold more frequent news conferences going forward.
“Especially after this one was all over TV,” the person said.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário