As Republicans debated, Biden campaign put focus on Trump
Send a link to a friend
[August 24, 2023]
By Andrea Shalal and Jarrett Renshaw
(Reuters) -Former President Donald Trump skipped the first Republican
debate of the 2024 election on Wednesday, but the campaign of Democratic
President Joe Biden was hard at work keeping the focus on the former
White House occupant.
Minutes before the eight Trump challengers began their debate, a Biden
ad on the Fox News Channel broadcasting the event featured an image of a
tired-looking Trump, and Biden saying: "There is no quit in America."
Much could change in the more than 14 months before the 2024 election,
but for now a Biden-Trump rematch appears most likely.
Trump, the overwhelming front-runner for the Republican nomination, did
a pre-recorded interview with former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson
on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
His name only arose nearly an hour into the Fox News debate when
moderators asked candidates whether they would still support Trump, who
faces multiple indictments, if he were convicted.
While Biden has rarely mentioned Trump in recent months, his campaign
mocked what it called Trump's "softball 'interview'" in a statement
before it was broadcast and accused MAGA Republicans at the debate of
supporting his "extreme and unpopular agenda" and doing Trump
"impressions."
Biden supporters and the campaign pushed the message through the debate.
U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin, the leading Democrat on the House
Oversight Committee, said on X that Trump and Republicans added $7.8
trillion to the national debt.
[to top of second column]
|
U.S. President Joe Biden waves as he
departs for Maui from Reno, Nevada, U.S., August 21, 2023.
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
"They gave the store away to the super-rich and spent us into the
ground," he wrote.
Biden posted a clip of former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley
who during the debate also criticized Trump's debt policies. Biden
added the statement: "What she said."
No one had done more to open the door "for extreme abortion bans
nationwide than Trump," a later Biden campaign statement said.
The campaign circulated a mobile billboard around the debate venue
featuring "Dark Brandon," a cartoon meme of Biden, criticizing
Republicans on abortion rights.
The Biden campaign on Wednesday started its third major paid ad
campaign of the election cycle, a $25 million effort targeting eight
battleground states that includes the first messages aimed at Latino
and Black media.
The Biden campaign says it has yet to consider whether Biden will
debate Trump, or what it means if Trump decides against debating in
the general election in November 2024.
(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw; Additional reporting by Nandita Bose
in Washington; Editing by Heather Timmons and Howard Goller)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |