Donald Trump lashed out Sunday at President Biden after the incumbent said he was ending his campaign, as advisers to the former president mapped out a new strategy to adapt to a decision that upended the race less than four months before the election.
The Republican nominee, whose campaign had hoped Biden would stay in the contest, wrote on his social media website that Biden was “never” fit to serve or run for reelection and vowed to “remedy the damage he has done very quickly.” In private, his aides were advancing preparations to run against Vice President Harris, anticipating that their main argument against her would focus on her role in Biden’s border policy, according to people familiar with the situation, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss strategy.
Biden on Sunday endorsed Harris as his successor, but it is not yet clear who the Democratic Party will nominate in his place.
Biden’s exit injected new uncertainty into a race where Trump had built a polling edge in key swing states — capping a surreal stretch of events in which Democrats revolted over Biden’s poor debate performance and Trump survived an assassination attempt. Biden’s announcement led to some worry in Republican circles about the race, which “just got way harder,” in the eyes of some, according to a senior Republican familiar with Trump’s campaign, who did not see Sunday as a good day for Trump.
Aides to the former president had long viewed Biden as easiest to beat and fine-tuned their operation to run against him. Privately, Trump allies had worried that a Democrat besides Biden or Harris could be a tougher opponent.
Some allies said they were charging ahead unfazed. David Urban, a GOP strategist who was an adviser to the Trump 2016 and 2020 campaigns, called the change at the top of the ticket “immaterial” and said Biden and Harris are “interchangeable.”
“She is complicit in every bad decision he’s made,” he added, anticipating more chaos from a “huge intra party scrum” among Democrats for vice-presidential pick.
From first-time senator to vice president, these are Vice President Harris’s most notable moments. (Video: Alisa Shodiyev Kaff/The Washington Post, Photo: Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
Trump’s team began preparing for other possibilities well before Biden left the race. By the end of the Republican National Convention, at late night parties and in the convention hall, Trump aides and advisers felt certain that Biden was going to step aside and asked around if Democrats and reporters expected the announcement to come this weekend or later this week.
Trump’s operation had already ramped up their attacks on Harris. Multiple Trump advisers said the main argument against Harris will be her role addressing the root causes of migration to the United States — which Republicans have used to brand her the “border czar” — and what has happened at the southern border under her watch.
Trump posted his reaction on Truth Social, his social media site, about 45 minutes after Biden shared a letter announcing his withdrawal.
“Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve — And never was!” Trump wrote. “He only attained the position of President by lies, Fake News, and not leaving his Basement.” He added, “We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly.”
Biden ended his campaign after weeks of growing pressure to do so from fellow Democrats after a widely criticized debate performance in which he repeatedly appeared to lose his train of thought.
Other Republican leaders started coalescing behind a clear message: If Biden couldn’t run for reelection, then he should not continue serving as president. In a flood of statements, they accused Democrats of covering up Biden’s condition and said voters should remember it in November.
“Voters will neither forgive nor forget the ultimate betrayal of their trust,” said National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Richard Hudson (R-N.C.). “Judgment day is coming in November, when Americans will hand down Democrats’ ultimate punishment: Donald Trump in the White House and a larger House Republican majority.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) echoed the Trump team’s suggestions that Democrats were acting undemocratically in pushing for Biden’s removal from the ticket.
“The party’s prospects are no better now with Vice President Kamala Harris, who co-owns the disastrous policy failures of the Biden Administration,” Johnson said in a statement, tying her to Biden’s border policies in particular.
Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s former campaign manager, suggested Harris “leads the very long line of Democrats who lacked the courage, integrity and love of country” to push for Biden to step aside earlier due to “mental and physical decline.”
Chris LaCivita, one of Trump’s top campaign advisers, echoed that attack, sharing Harris’s post describing her time with Biden “when the cameras are on and when the cameras are off.”
At a rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Saturday, Trump ridiculed Harris’s laugh, mispronounced her first name — which many Republicans routinely butcher — and called the vice president “crazy,” “nuts” and “crazy as Nancy Pelosi.”
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Trump’s running mate, attacked Harris as well, drawing loud boos when he mentioned her name.
“Kamala Harris said something to the effect that I have no loyalty to this country,” Vance said. “Well, I don’t know, Kamala. I did serve in the United States Marine Corps and built a business, what the hell have you done, other than collect a check?”
The Trump team sent out a fundraising solicitation by text Sunday afternoon, saying that Biden had “just quit the race in COMPLETE DISGRACE!”
“Before the day is over, I’m calling on ONE MILLION Pro-Trump Patriots to chip in and proudly say: I stand with Trump,” the text said.
Source link : https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2024/07/21/trump-response-biden-dropping-out/
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Publish date : 2024-07-21 18:19:08
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