“Whether it’s him or somebody else, I’m going to go out and campaign,” Trump said Monday in an interview with Richmond radio host John Reed, referring to polls that show he has equal or greater support against other Democratic candidates.
“What’s interesting is we’re way ahead of him in the polls and yet nobody else is doing better than him,” he added in an interview with radio host John Fredericks that aired on Monday.
The spotlight on Biden is unusual for Trump, who is accustomed to dominating the headlines. But he has kept a low profile since the debate and has no public events scheduled this week. The announcement of his running mate is expected as early as next week, followed by the Republican National Convention the following week.
The message the Trump campaign sent to surrogates after last week’s debate was that Biden was the Democratic nominee and Democrats had to rely on him, according to a Republican close to the campaign. Like others interviewed for this story, the person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Biden survived a fiery 90-minute battle that sparked widespread alarm within the party.
“They clearly want Biden to stay in the race. They think he’s weak and they’re happy with the status quo. They’re clearly not at all keen on the possibility of Biden dropping out of the race,” said David Axelrod, Barack Obama’s longtime chief strategist.
According to people familiar with the matter, Trump’s advisers were privately stunned by Biden’s poor performance because they believed he was a stronger debate fighter.
Taylor Budowicz, who heads Trump’s outside political action committee, said Thursday’s debate footage “would be a devastating campaign ad.” But Budowicz also said the “ad team is ecstatic” that Harris is the nominee. On Wednesday, the political action committee, known as MAGA Inc., circulated an attack article on Harris with the headline “Is Kamala Harris the Invasion Czar? The Best Candidate?”
Biden’s campaign and the White House have maintained the president still intends to run and are planning new campaign events and at least one television interview. The campaign said it had raised $127 million in June and ended the month with $240 million in cash on hand, compared with $111.8 million raised by the Trump campaign and $285 million in the bank.
Incumbent Biden and his aides have sought to continue their onslaught on Trump, attacking him on a range of issues, including abortion and the storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021. Biden on Monday responded to the Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity, saying the ruling will embolden Trump “to do whatever he wants” in his second term.
The Trump campaign expects Biden to be the Democratic nominee, Trump spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt said. “We are confident that no matter what Democrats are on the ballot, they can win by making Biden equal with the Democrats,” she added.
The Trump campaign has begun airing ads suggesting Harris is praising Biden’s struggles, showing her laughing like a villain and disguising the Biden-Harris campaign logo to erase the president’s name. The campaign has also attacked other Democratic candidates who have championed Biden in the past, accusing them of covering up. The president resigns.
Republicans have said they will attack any Democratic efforts to replace Biden as an affront to Democratic primary voters and the democratic process.
“What greater threat to democracy could there be than millions of Democratic primary voters who have already cast their ballots and then supporting, after the primary, an attempt by a few hundred Democratic leaders at the convention to replace that candidate,” Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), a potential vice presidential candidate, said after Thursday’s debate. “This is the greatest threat to democracy that has been contemplated in American government for years.”
Outside the campaign, lawyers from the right-wing Heritage Foundation are examining voting access laws in all 50 states and preparing to oppose any efforts to remove or replace Biden after he officially becomes the Democratic nominee.
“What our investigation basically makes clear is that this is incredibly complicated and there is ample opportunity for litigation,” said Mike Howell, director of the Heritage Oversight Project. “You don’t dance with the girl you brought to the prom. American elections can’t be fabricated on the spot, and the fact that such a big lie was told to the American people is not a convenient excuse to evade the law.”
“We want to follow the rule that when someone is trying to kill themselves, it’s best not to get in the way,” said Ralph Reed, president of the Faith and Freedom Coalition. “After Thursday, I think we’re going to cede the stage to Joe Biden and the Democrats. They’re organizing a circular firing squad.”
Trump himself has been largely silent this week, with some advisers saying he wants the announcement of his vice presidency to be delayed as long as possible to allow Democrats to fret over their own issues. Trump remains focused on Vance and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), according to two people who have spoken to him recently. They have also mentioned other names, including North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R), as a potential option.
“I don’t think he’s really made up his mind,” said one person who has spoken to him multiple times.
“President Trump will soon announce a running mate who is far more qualified and capable than Kamala Harris,” Levitt said.
Kellyanne Conway, a longtime Trump ally, argued that Trump didn’t need to say much about the debate. “The art of politics is telling people what they don’t see, not what they do see,” Conway said. “People are never going to forget what they saw in that moment.”
While Democrats are panicking over Biden’s poor performance in Thursday’s debate and his ability to run his campaign and serve another four years in office, Trump is welcoming a more positive development: the Supreme Court’s decision will postpone and possibly eliminate the risk of criminal prosecution. Trump’s legal team won a delay, if any, until September in sentencing for Trump, who was convicted of 34 felony counts in New York state. The judge said he would consider the impact of the Supreme Court’s Monday ruling that the president cannot be prosecuted for official acts.
Some Trump campaign staffers have rejoiced at the Democrats’ collapse and posted online tirades, sometimes vulgar, aimed at Biden and his staff, but aides have warned against getting cocky and putting their own momentum at risk.
“The whole Biden reelection campaign is in complete free fall right now,” Fredericks, the radio host, said in an interview Tuesday. “Just get out of the way. Let them collapse.”
