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U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at an event marking the 12th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in the East Room of the White House on June 18, 2024.
Washington
CNN
—
Several leading Democrats have issued a stern warning to President Joe Biden’s team, urging it to spend more time directly attacking former President Donald Trump and less time pointing out the president’s policy record.
The reason is simple: Talking about Biden’s policy accomplishments is not resonating with voters.
“He wants to get the credit, and that’s not working,” one Democratic official who recently conveyed those concerns to the campaign said of Biden. “He needs to stop.”
Four sources close to the White House, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations with the campaign, said Biden’s team has urged them to go on the offensive on the economy, using the debate to challenge Trump’s cozy ties to U.S. corporations and the inflationary nature of his proposed policies. Biden and Trump face off in the first presidential debate, broadcast live on CNN at 9 p.m. Thursday.
The behind-the-scenes warnings echo concerns expressed by Ron Klain, a longtime Biden aide who is also preparing the president for Thursday’s debate. Earlier this year, Klain reportedly told a private audience that Biden was spending too much time praising bridges he was building rather than connecting with voters. The White House denied at the time that Klain’s views were a departure from their strategy.
“Klain understands,” one of the sources said of the former chief of staff, who is leaving his job as Airbnb’s chief legal officer to return to his job as debate coach.
This is unusual for Biden, a lifelong politician who has grown accustomed to seeking recognition when he feels he should, especially as his list of accomplishments grows longer. His frustration when he feels the recognition isn’t there is clear.
In a May interview in Racine, Wisconsin, Biden, who had just announced billions of dollars in investments in places where similar promises under Trump had gone unfulfilled, was visibly frustrated when asked why voters still preferred his predecessor’s economic policies and whether he could turn those sentiment around.
“We’re already turning things around… The polling data has been wrong all along,” Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett, disputing lower-than-expected economic output and pointing to job creation as proof the US has “the best economy in the world.”
Sources who spoke to CNN argued that this election is different from any reelection race Biden has ever faced. The US economy has defied recession predictions, with jobs and production soaring, and that strength has driven up prices for consumers and businesses. To stop that, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates, and borrowing to buy a car or a home has become much more expensive.
As a result, the economy has become both voters’ top priority and their biggest complaint about the incumbent president: An ABC News/Ipsos poll in May found that more than 80% of respondents said the economy and inflation were important in deciding their vote, with Trump trailing Biden by 14 points on both issues.
A CNN poll released in late April showed Biden’s approval ratings on the economy (34%) and inflation (29%) remained significantly lower, with voters saying economic issues were more important in choosing a candidate than in the past two presidential elections.
In early June, the Biden reelection campaign launched new ads in battleground states in both English and Spanish, emphasizing Biden’s working-class roots and familiarity with working-class struggles. And in recent months, he has moved away from boasting about “Bidenomics” and begun to embrace the message that there is still much work to be done, acknowledging that his policies have not fully solved the economic problems of the post-pandemic era.
And on Tuesday, Biden’s reelection campaign used the final countdown to Thursday night’s presidential debate on CNN to argue that Trump’s reelection would do nothing to help the middle class.
“Donald Trump loves to attack Joe Biden because he’s too focused on revenge and has no plan to help the middle class,” a narrator says in the new ad, which the Biden campaign unveiled in June as part of a $50 million paid media campaign targeting battleground voters.
The ad also says Biden has worked to cap the price of insulin, lower health care costs and make “big corporations pay their fair share” — a list his administration and campaign have frequently touted in recent months as helping lower- and middle-class Americans.
Biden has also targeted shrinkflation, joking to hospitality industry leaders in February that Snickers bars had gotten 10 percent smaller but cost the same.
But his natural inclination is to try to convince people that they should feel more positive about the economy, with data to back up his views.
“Imagine if you spent 50 years of your life in politics and now you’re president. You want people to know you’re doing a really good job,” one major donor told CNN. “I think Biden can’t help but talk about how good a job he’s done.”
CNN’s MJ Lee contributed to this report.
