The Biden Project: Restoring the Faith in the Nation, Bringing Justice to the White House, and Predicting Donald Trump’s 2020 Run
The official declaration finally ended any lingering suspense over Mr. Biden’s intentions and effectively cleared the way to another nomination for the president, barring unforeseen developments. Mr. Biden had repeatedly and consistently said he intended to run, even though he didn’t start until the fall. Now his team can assemble the formal structure of a campaign organization and raise money to finance it.
The granddaughter of the late labor leader Cesar Chavez was selected by Mr. Biden to be his campaign manager. The principal deputy will be Quentin Fulks, a Democratic activist who worked for Senator Raphael Warnock in his re-election campaign. The operation is expected to be presided over from the White House.
Mr. Biden denied that he was ready to hand over the torch because he said he was “a bridge” to the next generation. His decision was fueled in part, aides said, by his antipathy for Mr. Trump and his belief that he is the Democrat best positioned to keep the criminally indicted and twice-impeached former president from recapturing the White House.
Questions about Biden’s age are nothing new. His opponents used this against him when he ran for president in 2020 and have continued to point out that he is suffering from cognitive issues.
As Mr. Biden formally kicked off his campaign, he appeared at this point to be a virtual lock to win his party’s nomination. While many Democrats had hoped he would cede to a younger candidate, no formidable challenger for the nomination has emerged. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of the assassinated senator, and self-help author, will not be a factor in the 2020 presidential race because they do not pose a risk to the incumbent president.
He said in his video that his battle to restore the “soul of the nation” was still incomplete and at risk. At his speech, the biggest applause lines were his vows to defend the country from various perils, not any remarks presenting an uplifting vision for the future.
“It’s been one crisis after another,” said Cristóbal Alex, who worked on Mr. Biden’s 2020 run and in his White House. The country is still on the cliff. Donald Trump’s election would push the country over the edge.
The Avatars of the 2020 State of the Union: How President Biden and his Team are at Work During the 2019 Presidential Campaign
The re-election staff is still being built out, and some elements of the campaign weren’t finished until last weekend. Mr. Biden called Representative Veronica to ask for her to be a co-chair of the campaign.
Mr. Biden’s team is sensitive to questions about his age and the rigor of his schedule, especially after he won in 2020 while campaigning most of the year from his Delaware home because of the pandemic. The White House has compiled a chart tracking his travel so far in 2023, and it shows that his number of trips outpaced former President Barack Obama’s in the same time period in 2011.
With the widespread end of coronavirus precautions, Democrats are predicting a return to normalcy on the campaign trail. Phil Murphy said the 2020 race will have turned out to be an atypical election.
But Mr. Biden’s campaign is hardly seeking to have him dominate the headlines. As he has traveled the country recently to promote his legislative accomplishments, the nation’s attention has often focused elsewhere, especially on the never-ending legal and political drama encircling his predecessor.
Biden works out five days a week and received a clean bill of health at his annual physical earlier this year, with his physician concluding that he “remains fit for duty, and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations.”
His age could be a concern for voters too, Axelrod says, noting that former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley is making “generational change a fundamental aspect of her campaign.”
“When you look at polling, when you watch focus groups, it’s the thing that people bring up first,” he says. “We are in uncharted waters, we’ve never had a president this old.”
Axelrod argues that Biden’s approach — particularly when it comes to things like being less reactive on social media — is part of why voters elected him in the first place, and that those qualities were what people wanted after the tenure of former President Donald Trump.
The president’s job is the hardest on the planet due to the long hours and decisions. He says Biden’s staff would point to some of his high points as proof he can do it, such as his February State of the Union address, in which he made a pitch to “finish the job.”
“He stood on his feet for an hour, he engaged his hecklers and he was triumphant,” Axelrod says. “And then they’re going to tell you to just watch him.”
“He often says ‘don’t judge me versus the almighty, judge me versus the alternative,'” he adds. “And I think that’s what they’re counting on now, his strategists — that this isn’t going to be a referendum on Joe Biden, this is going to be a choice. The choice may be the same that we faced four years ago.
A recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found that two-thirds of Republican voters would still vote for Trump even if he were found guilty of a crime.
What will they tell us next year? Axelrod’s view of the problem in high-energy technicolor
“They can make that argument and I think it will land with some voters,” Axelrod says. “And they’ll choose between that and those qualities I mentioned before: wisdom, experience and perspective.”