Bengaluru: The Congress on Monday launched a ‘CryPM’ campaign ahead of the Karnataka Assembly polls and put out a QR code showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi wiping his tears.
Along with the ‘CryPM’ QR code, the party also put out a ‘PayCM’ QR code poster too, with Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s image in the middle.
The unique campaign was launched a day after Congress national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took potshots at Modi saying that he was the only Prime Minister she had seen who cried over insults aimed at him, instead of listening to the sufferings of the people.
“He (Modi) is the first prime minister I have seen who comes before you and cries that he is being abused. Instead of listening to your grief, he is coming here and telling you his (problems),” Vadra said.
The Indian Youth Congress in Karnataka tweeted the two posters of ‘CryPM’ and ‘PayCM’ side by side with a message, “The PM’s speeches these days remind me of my Facebook feed full of complaints and no substantial content. Time for a status update? #CryPMPayCM”
The Congress is also targeting the Chief Minister accusing his government of collecting 40 per cent commission on public works.
The state will go to the polls for the 224 seats in the general Assembly on May 10.
Tumkur: Addressing a public meeting in Tumkuru, Karnataka, on Monday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi stopped his speech after hearing the sound of Azaan (Muslim call to prayer).
This is not the first time that Rahul has halted his speech in an act of respect towards Azaan. In Amethi, in 2019, ahead of Lok Sabha Elections, Rahul halted his speech and waited for the Azaan to finish.
Lashing out at the BJP government in the southern state, the former Wayanad MP said, “For the last three years, BJP has only done corruption here. The people of Karnataka call this regime a “40 per cent government”, as they take a 40 per cent cut or commission from contractors.
“The PM was also aware of this. So I would like to ask him why he didn’t take any action on it.”
Rahul was disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha after being convicted and sentenced in connection with a criminal defamation case.
The case pertained to a comment he made using the surname ‘Modi’ at a campaign ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, in Kolar, Karnataka.
The Congress leader later moved a higher court in Surat, Gujarat, challenging his conviction for criminal defamation. But the Surat court upheld the lower court verdict.
The matter has now moved to the Gujarat High Court, which will take up the plea filed by the Congress leader for hearing on May 2.
Addressing a rally in Kolar in April 2019, Rahul, in a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said, “How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?”
As per an earlier Supreme Court ruling, any MP or MLA is automatically disqualified if convicted and sentenced for two years or more.
Mangaluru: Former Prime Minister and JD(S) president H D Deve Gowda will be visiting Dakshina Kannada district in poll-bound Karnataka on Monday as part of campaigning for the May 10 elections.
Addressing reporters here on Sunday, party MLC B M Farooq said Gowda will be canvassing voters in Mangaluru North constituency for party candidate Mohiudeen Bava, who recently quit the Congress and joined the JD(S).
Farooq said the JD(S) supremo will also visit Sunkadakatte Ambike Annapurneshwari Temple, Balavandi Daivasthana and Gurupura Kambala Dargah. He is also scheduled to address a public meeting at Gurupur.
Gowda, 89, will be holding a series of rallies across the state with just a few days to go for the end of campaigning on May 8. JD(S) second-in-command and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy will attend a public convention at Krisnapura here on May 5, Farooq said.
Karnataka goes to polls on May 10 and counting of votes will be on May 13.
“Here’s the bottom line. It’s very simple: We need you. Our democracy needs you because this is about our freedoms,” Biden told the jubilant crowd.
But it’s unclear whether that energy has translated into material fundraising success — particularly when it comes to small-dollar donations. The campaign has not provided any clues about its early haul, as it did immediately after the launch in 2019. Back then, Biden faced a number of Democratic rivals, including many who released in real-time how much they had been raising for the campaign.
There’s a sensitivity in the campaign that the early number could feed a negative narrative, according to a donor involved in the campaign. Some major donors have not yet been asked to give, according to that person.
Biden did not become a fundraising juggernaut until he entered the general election and faced off against Donald Trump. While he bested the Democratic field over the first 24 hours, he struggled to keep pace with rivals like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who built large war chests on the strength of donors who signed up to regularly give small amounts. Biden’s standing greatly improved later in the primary process as rivals withdrew from the race amid poor showings and he consolidated their supporters.
A campaign official maintained that the 2024 fundraising operation was well-positioned this cycle, and the Democratic National Committee had brought in $276 million for the midterms, a record for a midterm cycle. The campaign had already made a two-week, seven-figure ad buy that was running in six battleground states.
The Friday night reception drew more than 100 Democratic donors and officials to the lavish Salamander hotel in D.C.’s Southwest Waterfront. Among the elected officials were Govs. Gavin Newsom of California, Wes Moore of Maryland, and Phil Murphy of New Jersey. The first Gen-Z congressmember, 26-year-old Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), also attended, as did several of Biden’s newly announced campaign co-chairs, including Jeffrey Katzenberg, a major Democratic fundraiser and the only co-chair who is not an elected official.
As he left the White House on the gloomy Friday, a number of the members of Biden’s inner circle joined him en route, including counselor to the president, Steve Ricchetti, and senior adviser to the president, Mike Donilon.
Biden declined to mention former President Donald Trump by name in his remarks to the crowd. Instead, he lambasted “MAGA Republicans … trying to take us backwards.”
Attendees interviewed by POLITICO emphasized the energy in the room. Former Republican Rep. Jim Greenwood said the crowd gave Biden a standing ovation.
“I think everybody in the room was watching to see if he made a single gaffe,” he said. “He didn’t.”
Dick Harpootlian, a South Carolina state senator who bundled for Biden in 2020, said he thought most attendees seemed to believe that Trump would be the Republican nominee.
“He’s a motivating factor,” he said. “The two sort of high-profile people are him and DeSantis, and that’s Trump and Trump-lite.”
Christopher Cadelago contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) set the tone at the beginning of the week, privately telling Democrats in a leadership meeting that the debt vote could be framed to the American people in the same way liberals responded to Republican efforts to privatize Social Security, repeal Obamacare and pass the 2017 tax cut package, according to a person familiar with his remarks.
“We’re focused on doing the right thing by the American people, which is to make sure we avoid a dangerous default and ensure that America pays its bills,” he said Wednesday in a brief interview.
Democratic groups are already gearing up to knock Republicans over the debt standoff. The DCCC said vulnerable Republicans were “helping build the case against themselves” and their re-election, and House Majority PAC singled out frontline Republicans who voted for the bill.
A focus on the GOP’s debt bill and proposed cuts isn’t without its own political pitfalls. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) made clear his caucus is not responding to Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) legislation — ultimately putting the issue between President Joe Biden and the speaker after its passage in the House.
By contrast, the 2017 tax bill was signed into law with a GOP trifecta, giving Democrats real-life consequences to use against Republicans. It also gave candidates an avenue to campaign against Republicans without tying them specifically to then-President Donald Trump.
But what Democrats saw as effective campaign messaging in the 2022 midterms around the Jan. 6 insurrection and abortion rights could end up ranking higher on the list than potential spending cuts.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Cooch Behar: Senior TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday cautioned a section of party workers against using strong-arm tactics to manipulate public opinion on selecting candidates for the West Bengal panchayat polls during its mass outreach programme.
His remarks came a day after the inaugural day of the much-touted mass outreach campaign was marred by ruckus as infighting within the TMC came out in the open over the secret ballot voting process as two groups came down to blows during the event.
Banerjee, the TMC national general secretary, said those opposed to the programme, ‘Trinamool-ey Nabajowar’ (new wave in Trinamool), are free to leave the party.
Miffed over the incident, Banerjee had said the secret voting process would be conducted again there on Wednesday and cautioned that if some people think they can hijack the process of candidate selection through muscle power, “They are living in a fool’s paradise.”
While addressing a rally at Cooch Behar Dakshin constituency on the second day of his tour, he said, “If some people think that by multiple requests or by ensuring more votes through unfair means, they can secure their candidature, they are wrong,”
Banerjee, considered number two in the TMC, said the campaign would empower people to choose their own candidates through a secret ballot, whom the party would give nominations in the panchayat polls.
“Those unhappy with the programme are free to leave the party. We don’t want rotten elements in our party. One of the aims of this campaign is to cleanse the Panchayati Raj system,” he said.
Hitting out at BJP legislators from Cooch Behar district for not fighting for people’s rights in the area, Banerjee said locals must gherao the houses of such public representatives and seek answers.
“The BJP MLAs don’t fight for the rights of the people. They sport saffron tilak, wear a saffron scarf, enter the Assembly raising Jai Shri Ram slogans, and leave it shouting the same. People must gherao the houses of those who were elected from here as they have not worked for the people,” he said.
Banerjee, the nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, said that in the next two months, he will be staying on the streets and travelling more than 3500 km – from Cooch Behar in the northern part of the state to Kakdwip in the southern.
Here’s our verdict, using the following scale: Kept his promise, in progress, stalled, broke his promise.
Combating Covid-19
GRADE: KEPT HIS PROMISE
What Biden pledged: “When I’m elected your president, I’m going to act, and I’m going to act on day one. Folks, we’re going to act to get this Covid under control. … I’m never going to raise the white flag and surrender. We’re going to beat this virus. We’re going to get it under control, I promise you.”
What he’s done: Biden rolled out a far-reaching plan to rein in the pandemic on his first day in office, prioritizing efforts to mass-vaccinate the country and spark a rapid economic recovery that saw significant initial success.
The administration suffered multiple setbacks in the following months — notably misjudging both Covid’s ability to evolve and Americans’ willingness to keep up the fight against a deadly virus. But Biden did manage to blunt the pandemic threat through multiple rounds of shots and treatments that have allowed most people to return to their pre-pandemic lives.
The White House is now poised to end the Covid national emergency in May, in what amounts to the symbolic end of the Covid crisis. Deaths from the virus are now down to their lowest point since the early days of the pandemic. Still, Biden’s inability to stamp out Covid more completely means he will face the ongoing threat of a resurgence.
Rebuilding the economy
GRADE: Kept HIS PROMISE
What Biden pledged: “We’re going to invest in infrastructure, clean energy and manufacturing, and so much more. We’ll create millions of good paying American jobs and get the job market back in the path to full employment.”
What he’s done: Biden presided over a swift economic recovery buoyed by bills he championed allocating billions of dollars in Covid aid, as well as major investments in manufacturing and infrastructure projects.
Three years after Covid shuttered much of the country, the unemployment rate is near 50-year lows, the economy has added tens of millions of jobs and wages are rising on average.
But high inflation through much of 2022 overshadowed those gains for many, denting Biden’s economic record and miring the administration for a time in debates over whether its stimulus efforts were too aggressive. The White House has since emphasized various cost-cutting initiatives aimed at balancing out rising prices, most notably winning reductions in certain prescription drug costs. The pace of inflation is now cooling, though not enough yet to fully alleviate concerns.
Ending gun violence
GRADE: STALLED
What Biden pledged: “No one needs an AR-15. … I promise you, I will get these weapons of war off the street again and out of our communities.”
What he’s done: Biden oversaw passage of the most comprehensive gun safety legislation in nearly three decades. The only problem: It fell well short of taking the kinds of decisive actions that he pledged to deliver on the campaign trail.
The gun safety law passed in June 2022 made only limited improvements to background checks and did nothing to restrict access to assault weapons. And despite Biden’s promise to ban those weapons in the aftermath of several mass shootings over the last year, he’s made no progress toward convincing Congress to act.
The White House in the interim has issued a range of executive orders aimed at reducing gun violence, but even Biden himself recently admitted he’s effectively powerless on the issue, saying he’s “gone the full extent of my executive authority to do, on my own, anything about guns.”
Restoring U.S. leadership abroad
GRADE: Kept HIS PROMISE
What Biden pledged: “As president, I will ensure that democracy is once again the watchword of U.S. foreign policy, not to launch some moral crusade, but because it’s in our enlightened self-interest. We have to restore our ability to rally the free world so we can once more make a stand upon new fields of action together to face new challenges.”
What he’s done: The Biden administration angered its allies and hurt its global credibility by botching the withdrawal from Afghanistan, which the Taliban reconquered in 2021. Barely six months later, after Russia invaded Ukraine, Biden formed a global coalition that has held together through more than a year of fighting, providing Ukraine with the aid necessary to defend its territory far more effectively than originally expected.
That alliance has shown signs of shakiness at times, but has never cracked, winning Biden praise both at home and abroad for rebuilding America’s reputation as a diplomatic force.
Yet that’s a job that will only grow more challenging as the war drags on and with no clear consensus on an endgame in sight. Biden must also repair the damage done by an embarrassing leak of classified documents that illustrated spying efforts on a handful of allies and concerns about the state of the war in Ukraine.
Strengthening voting rights
Grade: stalled
What Biden pledged: “One thing the Senate and the president can do right away is pass the bill to restore the Voting Rights Act. … If they don’t, I’ve been saying all along, it’s one of the first things I’ll do as president if elected. We can’t let the fundamental right to vote be denied.”
What he’s done: Biden’s attempts to muster momentum for legislation strengthening voting rights fell flat, even after he backed abolishing the filibuster to pass it.
The president later signed the Electoral Count Act, which clarified the counting and certification process for electoral votes, but the administration has made little major headway on an issue that Biden made a central element of his 2020 campaign.
Judging by Biden’s reelection announcement video, voting rights will play a prominent role in his 2024 run as well. But there’s little apparent ability to do much in the interim that would help make good on his initial pledge.
Protecting access to abortion
Grade: In progress
What Biden pledged: “We’re in a situation where I would codify Roe v. Wade as defined by Casey. It should be the law, and there’s no reason why, if the Supreme Court makes the judgment that everybody’s worried about with these appeals going to the Supreme Court, that in exchange, I would codify Roe v. Wade and Casey.”
What he’s done: The Supreme Court ended up making the judgment that Democrats were worried about, striking down the constitutional right to abortion. But though Biden has advocated codifying Roe v. Wade since then, he doesn’t have the votes to do it.
The White House has instead done as much as it believes it can do on its own, including unraveling Trump-era restrictions on family planning funding and taking steps to protect access to medication abortion and help women travel across state borders to obtain the procedure. It’s also defending against other lawsuits aimed at further restricting access to reproductive health.
But those threats are ongoing, and will continue to test Biden’s desire to balance safeguarding abortion access with his reluctance to take more drastic steps pushed by activists that he worries could further draw the administration into a protracted legal battle.
Expanding health care
Grade: KEPT his promise
What Biden pledged: “I’ll not only restore Obamacare, I’ll build on it. … I’m going to increase subsidies to lower your premiums, deductibles, out-of-pocket expenses, out-of-pocket spending, surprise billing. I’m going to lower prescription drugs by 60 percent, and that’s the truth.”
What he’s done: Biden followed through on multiple health care promises with the passage of last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, expanding Obamacare subsidies and placing new restrictions on pharmaceutical prices.
Those provisions fell somewhat short of what Biden aspired to — placing an expiration date on the subsidy expansion and limiting a cap on insulin prices to only certain patients. But the IRA did also accomplish a longtime Democratic priority: Empowering Medicare to negotiate the cost of certain drugs.
Biden must still ensure those policies are effectively implemented. But taken together, they’re expected to make coverage more affordable and accessible for millions of people.
Overhauling immigration policies
GRADE: Broke his promise
What Biden pledged: “We’re going to restore our moral standing in the world and our historic role as a safe haven for refugees and asylum seekers, and those fleeing violence and persecution.”
What he’s done: In an approach that’s dismayed Democrats and immigration advocates, Biden maintained the strict Trump-era border policy known as Title 42 that has allowed the government to quickly expel migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The administration now plans to lift Title 42 next month, though there are few signs that Biden will significantly loosen his approach to immigration. A new policy rolled out earlier this year would largely prohibit migrants from applying for asylum at the southern border.
And though Biden rolled back some of former President Donald Trump’s most stringent immigration policies, his administration’s approach grew more restrictive after record numbers of migrants began arriving at the border. Biden has encouraged Congress to negotiate more comprehensive legislation to overhaul the immigration system, but there has been no progress toward accomplishing that.
Tackling climate change
GRADE: Kept his promise
What Biden pledged: “My time table for results is my first four years as president, the jobs that we’ll create, the investments we’ll make, and the irreversible steps we’ll take to mitigate and adapt to the climate change and put our nation on the road to net zero emissions no later than 2050.”
What he’s done: Biden is following through on his climate goals largely through a range of investments in the IRA designed to accelerate the nation’s transition toward clean energy.
Experts project the legislation could help cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by up to 42 percent by the end of the decade, compared to 2005 levels. Further regulatory changes that the administration plans to impose could help Biden meet his pledge of cutting total emissions in half by 2030. Biden also took unilateral steps requiring the federal government to be carbon-neutral by 2050.
But those are long-term projects, and will require the administration to implement all the new policies — and do it fast enough for them to have the necessary environmental impact to meet Biden’s timeline. There are also lingering questions over how the White House will juggle its climate ambitions with ongoing fossil fuel projects, after Biden broke a commitment to halt drilling on federal lands, most notably by approving the Willow oil and gas project in Alaska.
Expanding child and elder care access
Grade: Stalled
What Biden pledged: “My childcare plan is straightforward, straightforward. Every 3- and 4-year-old child will get access to free high quality preschool like students have here. And low- and middle-income families won’t spend more than 7 percent of their income on childcare for children under the age of five.”
What he’s done: The president’s vast plan to expand the “care economy” was cast aside during negotiations over the IRA and has yet to recover. Once a centerpiece of his vision for rebuilding the post-2020 economy, lawmakers axed policies to build out access to child-care and long-term care over concerns it would be too costly.
And despite Biden’s continued support for revisiting those efforts, there’s been no significant renewed push yet to get those policies through a divided Congress. Instead, Biden recently signed a series of executive orders directing federal agencies to try to make care more accessible.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
The president’s long-awaited announcement on Tuesday allows Biden to begin fundraising for what will be an expensive campaign. But his April launch also gave the green light for Democratic groups like Priorities USA to jumpstart 2024 efforts backing the president.
“It is essential to remind voters of what’s at stake in 2024, and to do so online. Issues such as abortion access, protecting our climate, curbing gun control, making health care more affordable and making our economy work for every American will be the centerpieces of this campaign,” said Danielle Butterfield, the group’s executive director.
Founded in 2011, Priorities USA is among the Democratic Party’s largest political action committees. But it won’t be the only one supporting Biden, or the main one for that. Future Forward, which already has been running TV ads, will likely be Biden’s primary outside spending apparatus, though American Bridge and others are also expected to have a share in the campaign’s portfolio.
There was also some uncertainty about the role Biden-allied Building Back Together might play after the 2022 election. But instead of paid media campaigns, BBT will focus on coordinating among Democratic groups to highlight the Biden administration’s efforts to implement the president’s agenda.
Priorities’ ad, titled “Our Strength, Our Champion,” focuses on the Biden administration’s accomplishments and echoes the tone of Biden’s announcement video — with imagery of Jan. 6 and Biden’s leading GOP opponent, former President Donald Trump. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, another expected 2024 GOP candidate, make appearances as well. The ad will stream in English and Spanish.
The ad then runs through a list of Biden’s accomplishments, noting that he has “worked across the aisle,” “protected marriage equality,” “took historic climate action,” and “lowered health care costs.”
In the final seconds of the video, with Biden’s voice playing in the background, “Joe Biden is fighting with us. Let’s finish the job together” flashed across the screen.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
In the days that followed, suspense continued to build about Biden’s decision and the timing of his announcement. But there shouldn’t have been — because once Biden’s team hired the film crew, he was boxed in, required by federal law to announce his candidacy within 15 days, even though some of his aides didn’t realize that at the time.
According to two people familiar with events, some aides involved with the run-up to Tuesday’s launch sought legal guidance after the video segments were recorded and were reminded about what’s known as “the 15-day trigger,” the requirement that campaigns file paperwork within 15 days of spending $5,000 on campaign-related expenditures.
“I assume that the campaign spent more than $5,000 to produce [the announcement video],” said Erin Chlopak, the senior director for campaign finance at the Campaign Legal Center. “Under federal regulations, once a candidate spends that, they are required to file their official statement of candidacy within 15 days.”
As late as last week, the people said, legal guidance was still being sought as to whether an announcement was required within that timeframe as a result of the video. According to people familiar with the deliberations, the legal requirement to file paperwork triggered by making the launch video was ultimately not part of the calculation to make the reelection bid official. The decision to flip the switch had already been made. Hence, hiring the video crew.
“There was no ambiguity among the senior team about what happens once you enter the 15-day window,” one Democratic strategist close to the process said, disputing that those involved in deciding to go ahead with the video production had failed to realize the implications.
Still, up until this week’s launch, there was robust debate among Democratic operatives close to top Biden aides about whether it made sense to announce in April. Biden himself, known for taking his time with weighty decisions, has long seemed inclined to seek a second term. But he hesitated about the timing of when. Some people close to the campaign speculated that those pushing for an earlier launch were trying to box him into announcing in April. One thing they had in their favor was Biden’s sense of nostalgia and superstition. Tuesday’s announcement came on the four-year anniversary of his last campaign launch.
But the announcement still left little time for sorting out more of the campaign structure, from lining up surrogates to launching a robust email program. Nor did the launch come with the usual pomp and circumstance that usually accompanies making the first step in a bid for the White House. Biden spoke before a gathering of union workers and did not mention the election run he’d just embarked on. There was only a spattering of fundraising solicitations sent around — a level that, one Democratic digital operative suggested, would have been more robust had the president’s digital team had a bit more prep time. There was no rally (though, Barack Obama similarly held off on doing a campaign event until weeks after making his 2012 bid known via a video).
The just-launched campaign declined a request for comment. Still, as the campaign gets going, top aides may want to keep the lawyers on speed dial.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Biden’s announcement came on a day when the leading Republican contender to challenge him, former President Donald Trump, began a trial where he is accused of rape. Another GOP hopeful, Nikki Haley, delivered a speech reaffirming the party’s commitment to restricting access to abortion, an issue that continues to galvanize voters on both sides perhaps more than any other.
The most powerful Republican on Capitol Hill, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, is fighting to wrangle his unruly caucus to get behind a proposal to tie major spending cuts to any debt ceiling increase, setting up another dramatic vote on the House floor as early as Wednesday. And the smoke is still just clearing from the sudden firings Monday of two outsized media personalities, Tucker Carlson by Fox and Don Lemon by CNN.
The chaotic tableau was not just a revealing snapshot of a particularly frenetic American moment — it may foreshadow the campaign to come, too. Biden, as he was at times during last year’s midterms, could find himself relegated to the background, as more extreme characters dominate the news and the nation’s collective consciousness. Rather than fret their second-fiddle fate, the president’s advisers find it advantageous.
“I go back to the first election, where he presented himself as… someone who is steady, someone who is thoughtful, someone who keeps his eyes on the prize,” said Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), one of the Biden campaign’s co-chairs. It is not, she added, about “the antics of the moment.”
For an incumbent eager to frame the next election, as he did last year’s, as a choice and not a referendum on his own record, being somewhat out of the spotlight’s glare has its benefits. Biden’s team wants to present him as a trusted, experienced politician; the drama-free alternative to extremism on the right. The media’s focus on louder, more strident voices — and his own innate unobtrusiveness — are not just an outgrowth of circumstances but also a key part of his campaign’s strategy.
“None of this backdrop to Biden’s announcement is a coincidence. It’s all part of the same reckoning that the country is going through,” said Jennifer Palmieri, who served as communications director on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. “When Biden ran the first time, he was talking about being a transitional president. He’s talking about ‘finishing the job’ because we have not completed this transition. We are still in this epic fight where big questions about democracy and fundamental rights are at stake.”
Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump and Democrats’ ability to defy historical headwinds last November and far surpass the party’s midterm expectations, Palmieri added, showed that “Biden and Democrats don’t have to be top of the news to win. They just have to make sure voters understand what’s at stake.”
Executing such a strategy is a bit easier when running against a sitting president rather than running as one. And, over the coming months, Biden world’s efforts to run as the drama-free, more competent alternative to what the Republican Party is offering will be tested by that Republican Party’s attempts to create drama and frame him as inept.
In his campaign launch video, Biden took the first step towards trying to set the contours of the debate. The video focused on Republican extremism in setting up the rationale for his campaign. It highlighted the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, the conservative Supreme Court’s decision striking down federal protections for abortion and GOP efforts at the state level to ban books, limit early voting and restrict transgender rights, as well as Republicans’ inaction on gun safety amid a surge of mass shootings. “MAGA extremists,” Biden says in the video, are “lining up to take away those bedrock freedoms.”
That’s a shift from last year’s focus on Democrats’ legislative accomplishments over Biden’s first two years in office. The White House has launched a major publicity blitz to tout the benefits of new laws — the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Chips Act boosting America’s tech sector and the Inflation Reduction Act, which has led to $200 billion in new investments in renewable energy projects. But none of those laws were referenced in the president’s three-minute launch video.
Instead, Biden focused on those accomplishments during a lunchtime speech at the annual meeting of the North America’s Building Trades Unions, a gathering that represents a critical piece of the president’s political base. The speech was an official address, with the only flourish from the just-launched campaign effort being Biden’s new “finish the job” catchphrase.
“Under my predecessor, Infrastructure Week was a punchline. On my watch, we’re making Infrastructure Decade a headline,” Biden said, addressing the audience directly. “Union workers will build roads and bridges, lay internet cable, install electric vehicle chargers. Union workers are going to transform America. And union workers are going to finish the job!”
Those remarks occurred, however, shortly after CNN cut away from live coverage of the speech, which was a familiar rehash of the president’s well worn economic message.
Biden world has long scoffed at the notion that they should gear their approach around the whims of cable or Twitter at that. And the campaign’s strategy with its launch day, which also featured Vice President Kamala Harris speaking about reproductive rights at an event in Maryland, appeared to reflect a broader awareness about how Americans consume their news now. With the initial video push, followed by two events featuring Biden and Harris that could practically be turned into videos themselves, the campaign will be able to reach a number of constituencies with multiple messages. Creating banner headlines on cable TV, it seems, was not the point.
Biden’s former communications director Kate Bedingfield, who CNN opted to interview from a Washington studio rather than carrying Biden’s remarks, made it clear that the president isn’t especially reliant on the mainstream media. His team often prefers to engage with content creators with large followings or to package the president’s comments themselves for distribution via social media platforms and email lists.
“We’re living in an incredibly fractured media environment, and so the president and his team have to think about how do we reach people where they’re actually getting their news,” Bedingfield said.
With polls showing a majority of Americans preferring that Biden not seek a second term, the campaign team has its work cut out for them. The task being to gin up support from your own base while keeping yourself off of center stage can, at times, be in conflict. But there is one way to do both: focusing attention on the Republican alternative.
“Republicans nominating Trump again plays right into Biden’s message,” GOP pollster Whit Ayres conceded. “Biden only won in 2020 by a hair in the Electoral College, and he has significant problems now. But his unobtrusiveness is not one of them. In part, that’s what he ran on: not being in your face every day.”
Jennifer Haberkorn contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
