They launched a bold counterattack.
Four years after the onset of the Covid pandemic, President Joe Biden’s campaign is strategically engaging with a familiar inquiry often posed by former President Donald Trump and his supporters: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”
Recently, Trump prompted this question to his substantial following on Truth Social, leveraging it to draw distinctions between Biden’s and his own administration’s economic and border policies. However, the Biden-Harris campaign intends to seize the narrative by recalling pivotal moments from four years ago, aiming to redirect the focus onto Trump’s handling of the pandemic, perceiving a prime opportunity to exploit perceived weaknesses in his leadership during that time.
A statement issued by the Biden campaign on Friday underscored Trump’s vow, made precisely four years earlier, to “terminate” the Affordable Care Act, a mere ten days subsequent to the World Health Organization’s official declaration of Covid as a global pandemic.
“Four years ago today, Trump was attempting to strip millions of Americans of their health insurance at a time when thousands were succumbing to Covid-19, infections were escalating, and hospitals were overwhelmed,” remarked Biden-Harris senior spokesperson Sarafina Chitika in the statement.
Furthering this narrative, the campaign released a digital advertisement on Thursday juxtaposing imagery from the initial stages of the pandemic with audio clips of Trump suggesting unconventional treatments, trivializing the gravity of Covid-related fatalities, and brushing off inquiries from journalists regarding his management of the crisis.
During a campaign event in Houston, Biden employed this strategy while addressing supporters, humorously responding to Trump’s query about improved circumstances with references to the former president’s controversial suggestions regarding disinfectants as treatments.
This approach forms part of a broader campaign tactic by Biden and his team to appropriate language previously associated with Trump and the Republican Party. Highlighting Biden’s higher number of public engagements compared to Trump, the campaign accused the former president of seclusion, a tactic frequently employed by Trump and his supporters against Biden during the 2020 election cycle.
Moreover, the campaign has embraced the term “Brandon,” originally a derisive nickname for Biden, repurposing it into a persona featured in their social media branding, including a dedicated “Dark Brandon” account and associated memes.
A senior campaign official disclosed plans to sustain this strategy throughout April, utilizing flashbacks to key moments from four years ago, such as surges in crime rates and shortages of essential goods towards the end of Trump’s tenure, as well as reminders of the tumultuous pandemic period in 2020.
In response, Trump’s spokesperson cited various economic and geopolitical factors to assert that the nation fared better under Trump’s leadership prior to the Covid-19 crisis, contrasting with the perceived mismanagement under Biden.
