President Biden’s campaign officials announced they are kicking off their general election campaign Wednesday against former President Donald Trump, hours after Mr. Trump prevailed in the New Hampshire GOP primary and appeared unstoppable in his quest for a second November matchup with Mr. Biden.
The Biden team told reporters it is “laser-focused” on contrasting the president with Mr. Trump, even though Mr. Trump’s GOP opponent, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, is not dropping out of the race for the nomination.
“The results out of New Hampshire confirm that Donald Trump has all but locked up the GOP nomination, and the election-denying, anti-freedom MAGA movement has completed its takeover of the Republican Party,” said campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez.
Ms. Haley insists she can remain competitive in dozens of primary states, but officials said Wednesday that the Biden campaign team isn’t bothering with her.
Biden 2024 spokesman Michael Tyler said the campaign has long assumed Mr. Trump would become the nominee, even before he decisively won both the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday and the Iowa caucus on Jan. 15. Now it’s inevitable, he said.
“We’re just looking at the reality of the data in front of us,” Mr. Tyler told reporters. “We’ve been prepared for this since the launch of this re-election in April of last year. Now, coming off of Iowa and New Hampshire, you have Donald Trump, who’s fully consolidated the extreme MAGA base of the party and his marching towards the nomination. So this campaign is now laser-focused on presenting that direct choice to the American people because it’s real at this point in time.”
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Ms. Haley placed second in New Hampshire’s primary, about 11 points behind Mr. Trump. She headed straight to South Carolina for a rally in Charleston ahead of the state’s GOP primary on Feb. 24, and her allies are airing two campaign ads there.
Mr. Trump has tried to consolidate the party behind his candidacy so he can focus his campaign on Mr. Biden, but he used most of his New Hampshire victory speech attacking Ms. Haley, who on Wednesday characterized his speech as “a meltdown.”
Mr. Biden is struggling in the polls despite bickering among GOP presidential candidates.
National polls and some swing state surveys show Mr. Biden trailing Mr. Trump narrowly, and the president’s approval rating has sunk below 40%.
The Biden campaign officials brushed off the poll numbers and said they’ll draw a sharp contrast between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden, particularly on the issue of abortion, which has hurt the GOP since the Supreme Court threw out Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized the procedure.
Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris held a campaign event Tuesday in a Virginia suburb ripe with swing voters. Mr. Biden told the crowd that Mr. Trump, who appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court, is responsible for an increase in restrictive abortion bans.
“Trump spent his evening airing personal grievances against Nikki Haley, while President Biden and Vice President Harris highlighted the stakes of 2024 for Americans rights and freedoms,” Ms. Chavez Rodriguez said. “So it’s with that clear contrast on full display that we enter the general election phase of this campaign.While Joe Biden and Kamala Harris head into the general election, with a winning message the support of a united party and strong grassroots enthusiasm, Republicans are uniting behind an extreme and losing front runner.”
Cedric Richmond, a campaign co-chair, said Biden’s team is not focused on the polls, which he said “are just a snapshot in time.”
The campaign team is confident of victory in November, he said.
“We’re going to run like we are behind but do we think we’re going to win? Absolutely,” he said.
Mr. Tyler said the campaign is in general election mode — staffing up and laying the groundwork to win, particularly in the critical battleground states.
“The work only picks up from now,” Mr. Tyler said. “This is officially 2024 and the campaign’s posture is going to reflect that as we head headfirst into the general election.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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