After giving a strong State of the Union speech, President Joe Biden criticized former President Donald Trump publicly, as he and his senior aides started traveling across the country to enthusiastically promote his plans for a second term to voters.
The president is using the energy from his speech to go to Pennsylvania and Georgia for campaign events in two critical battleground states that he won in 2020 and wants to win again in November. He went to a private home in the important suburbs of Philadelphia with his wife, Jill Biden, to have a discussion with Jack and David Cunicelli, the owners of 320 Market Cafe, and their families before speaking to supporters at the local middle school. He will then go to New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Michigan next week.
After the speech, Biden’s campaign was very excited and promised to keep attacking Trump. Jill Biden, when introducing her husband at Strath Haven Middle School, said, “Last night, Joe showed the world what I see every day.”
During his speech to Congress on Thursday, Biden only mentioned his “predecessor,” but on Friday during campaigning, he and his wife openly criticized Trump for increasing the deficit, limiting access to abortion, and causing the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol.
He also held Trump responsible for the decline in the country’s political discussions.
Biden commented on the negative impact of the country’s political discourse, saying, “When you ride down the street and there’s a Trump banner with an F-U on it and a little 6-year-old kid putting up his middle finger,” Biden said. “Did you ever think you’d hear people talk the way they do? It demeans who we are. That’s not America.”
Biden pointed out the threat to in vitro fertilization in Alabama after a recent state Supreme Court ruling. “You know why it happened? I’ll tell you why. One reason: Donald Trump,” Biden said.
Biden criticized Trump for creating doubt about America’s commitments to its NATO allies and for hosting Hungary’s Victor Orban at his Florida estate on Friday. “You know who he’s meeting with today down in Mar-a-Lago? Orban of Hungary, who’s stated flatly that he doesn’t thinks democracy works, he’s looking for dictatorship. Only member of NATO. That’s who he’s meeting with,” Biden said.
“I foresee a future where we protect democracy, not weaken it.”
Jill Biden called Trump “dangerous,” said “he mocks women’s bodies and devalues our existence” and added, “And we can’t let him win.”
Biden joked that he got his “usual warm reception” from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican from Georgia, who heckled Biden to address the death of Laken Riley, a nursing student from Georgia. An immigrant from Venezuela who entered the U.S. illegally has been arrested and charged with Riley’s murder.
The president’s campaign announced Friday that he and Vice President Kamala Harris will visit every major swing state in coming days, while launching a $30 million, six-week advertising campaign on TV and digital platforms designed to highlight key themes from the State of the Union to Black, Asian and Hispanic communities.
Harris is planning her own trips, starting with a visit to Arizona to continue her national tour promoting reproductive rights and then going to Nevada for her own campaign event.
The effort will involve advertisements during the NCAA basketball tournament, as Biden’s team tries to take advantage of high viewership, similar to when they aired an ad pledging to defend abortion rights during the recent Grammy Awards.
By the end of this month, the campaign aims to increase from 100 staff members in seven battleground states to over 350, and also to open more than 100 field offices. Trump’s campaign is also focusing on the same areas, seeking to win over Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona after losing them in 2020, while also trying to fend off Biden’s attempts to gain support in North Carolina and Florida.
Biden’s campaign is aiming to criticize Trump heavily at a crucial time, as the former president works to unite his party after the primaries, and as more potential swing voters start realizing that November will indeed be a 2020 rematch.
“We are aware that he was defeated in 2020, so in order to win, he needs to expand his voter base and attract new supporters, which is something he hasn’t really focused on,” Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a press call on Friday.
She also pointed out that when former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley exited the Republican presidential primary race, Trump chose to ridicule her supporters instead of embracing them, as Biden’s campaign has done.
Biden’s reelection campaign stated that the first hour of the State of the Union address resulted in its most successful fundraising hour since its launch in 2023, and the following two hours set new records. It did not disclose the actual amount of money it collected.
Before heading to Philadelphia on Friday, Biden addressed reporters and did not commit to participating in a debate with Trump, the likely Republican nominee, during the general election.
“It depends on his behavior,” Biden stated.
Earlier this week, Trump challenged Biden to debates “anytime, anywhere, anyplace.” However, Trump avoided all opportunities to spar with his Republican primary opponents, and he has criticized the nonpartisan commission that arranges presidential debates. Televised debates have been a part of every White House campaign since 1976.
The Trump campaign has also used his journey through the Republican primary to attempt to gain momentum of its own going into November. A super PAC supporting the former president has released an ad highlighting Biden’s age, 81, and questioning, “If Biden wins, can he even survive till 2029?”
Biden’s campaign mentioned that Thursday night’s speech demonstrated that, rather than highlighting age compared to the 77-year-old Trump, Biden is presenting a clear policy distinction with his predecessor.
“While he’s four years younger, his ideas are ancient,” Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said of Trump. ”He’s talking about essentially taking us backward as a country.”
Presidents generally take their State of the Union message on the road, but Biden’s sales pitch this year is more crucial than ever as he tries to convince a skeptical public not only of his policy accomplishments but also that he is capable of the presidency.
Cabinet secretaries and senior White House officials are starting their own post-State of the Union travel blitz to support Biden's message from Friday and continuing in the upcoming weeks, visiting not only swing states but rural areas like Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
During his speech at the Capitol, Biden had an unusually fiery tone, contrasting his vision with that of "my predecessor" — Trump — over a dozen times, not only on policies like health care and taxes, but also on his views on freedom and democracy, both in the U.S. and abroad.
While providing live commentary on his social media platform, Trump ridiculed Biden's delivery, saying, "THIS IS LIKE A SHOUTING MATCH," and defending his policies from Biden's repeated jabs.
The Biden administration is assigning portions of Biden’s agenda to different Cabinet officials to promote in the following weeks. Much of the focus will be on how Biden’s policies have encouraged significant investments in communities across the country, with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg traveling to Philadelphia and Rhode Island in the coming weeks to support bridge repairs and other infrastructure improvements.
The Cabinet travels heavily involve climate policy, with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland planning to advocate for Biden's climate policies at a conference in Florida on Monday. Michael Regan, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, is traveling across the country — stopping in Florida, California, and Oregon — to promote electrified school buses and other endeavors to transition to a clean energy economy.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is going to Kentucky next week to promote Biden's efforts to strengthen the economy in disadvantaged communities, while Education Secretary Miguel Cardona is visiting Massachusetts and Pennsylvania to discuss education opportunities through Biden’s agenda.
