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FILE – In this March 10, 2020 file photo, Democratic presidential nominee former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event in Columbus, Ohio. The prospect of the presidential election in Buckeye State has gotten a little more insane. Ohio Republicans are trying to come together and present a united front heading into their party’s national convention, following a week in which one of their best-known politicians spoke for Biden at the Democratic convention, and the attorney general of the state challenged President Donald Trump for his mail. politics. (AP Photo / Paul Vernon, file)
WASHINGTON – After spending a pandemic spring and summer tied almost entirely to his Delaware home, Joe Biden plans to take his presidential campaign into battle states after Labor Day in his bid to overthrow President Donald Trump.
No timetable is set, according to the Democratic nominee’s campaign, but the former vice president and his allies say their plan is to highlight the contrasts with Trump, from political arguments tailored to specific audiences to the strict public health guidelines Biden’s campaign says. keep your events in the midst of COVID-19.
That’s a notable difference from a president who on Thursday handed over his acceptance of nomination on the White House lawn to more than 1,000 people sitting side by side, most of them without masks, even as the number of deaths in the United States exceeded 180,000.
“He’ll go where he needs to go,” said Biden’s campaign co-chairman Cedric Richmond, a congressman from Louisiana. “And we will do it in a way that health experts would be happy” and “not in the absolutely irresponsible way you saw in the White House.”
Richmond said it was “always the plan” for Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris to travel more extensively after Labor Day, the traditional mark of the campaign home stretch when casual voters start to pay more attention.
Trump and Republicans have mocked Biden for months for “hiding in his basement,” because Biden has anchored his campaign from his residence in Wilmington, Delaware, since mid-March, when public health officials first recommended that Americans will severely limit close social contact.
Biden has held online fundraisers, campaign events, and television interviews from home, but traveled only in moderation for speeches and panel discussions with a handful of media or supporters.
His only confirmed plane trip was to Houston, where he met with the family of George Floyd, the black man who was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer on May 25, sparking protests across the country.
Even some Democrats were quietly concerned that Biden was giving Trump too much attention. But Biden’s aides have defended his approach. “We will never make decisions that put our staff or voters at risk,” campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said in May.
Throughout his unusual campaign at home, Biden slammed Trump as incompetent and irresponsible for downplaying the pandemic and publicly contesting the government’s infectious disease experts. Richmond said that won’t change as Biden ramps up travel.
“We will not defeat this pandemic, which means we cannot restore the economy and get people to come home unless we exercise some discipline and lead by example,” Richmond said, adding that Trump is “unable to do so.” .
As his acceptance speech on Thursday demonstrates, Trump insists on as normal as possible, even as he withdrew from his signature indoor rallies after drawing a disappointing crowd in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 20.
Trump says Biden wants to “shut down” the economy to fight the virus. “Joe Biden’s plan is not a solution to the virus, but rather a surrender,” Trump declared on the White House lawn.
Biden, in fact, has not proposed shutting down the economy. He has only said that he would be willing to make such a move as president if advised by public health experts. The Democrat has also called for a national mask mandate, calling it a necessary measure for Americans to protect each other. Harris on Friday spoke about the idea in slightly different terms than Biden’s, acknowledging that a mandate would be difficult to enforce.
“It really is a standard. I mean, no one will be punished. Come on, ”the California senator said, chuckling at a question about how to enforce that rule during an interview that aired Friday on“ Today. ” “Nobody likes to wear a mask. This is a universal feeling. Right? So that’s not the point, ‘Hey, let’s enjoy wearing masks.’ Not.”
Harris suggested that instead, the rule would be about “what we, as responsible people who love our neighbor, have to do that right now.”
“God willing, it won’t be forever,” he added.
Biden and Harris have worn protective masks in public and remained socially estranged when appearing together at campaign events. Both have said for weeks that a rule requiring all Americans to wear them could save 40,000 lives in just a three-month period.
While such an order may be difficult to enforce at the federal level, Biden has asked every governor in the country to mandate the wearing of masks in their states, which would likely accomplish the same goal.
Trump has urged Americans to wear masks, but opposes a national requirement and personally refused to do so for months. He has worn a mask occasionally more recently, but not at any point Thursday at the closing event of the Republican National Convention, which violated District of Columbia guidelines prohibiting large gatherings.
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