The coronavirus pandemic is providing a political boost to Joe Biden, enabling him to avoid campaign rallies and other public gatherings where he is prone to verbal miscues that could hamper his bid to oust President Trump.
To reduce the spread of COVID-19, candidates in both parties have canceled public gatherings for the foreseeable future, replacing them with virtual events. The unusual development allows Biden to avoid traditional campaign rallies and town hall meetings, where he has occasionally faced hecklers, made news for sparse attendance, gotten into angry arguments with attendees, or obscured his message with headline-grabbing slip-ups. Biden is often at his best in controlled settings, and that could pay dividends against Trump if the coronavirus crisis persists.
“Biden’s style, his strengths, are better, are more effective in environments that aren’t rallies,” veteran Democratic operative Joe Trippi said Thursday. “The fact that he’s not going to have to operate in that environment probably benefits him.”
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Democratic strategists say virtual campaigning will help Biden, conceding he might have trouble matching the energy of Trump’s campaign and defending against the president’s potent, asymmetrical attacks. Recently, the hits have consisted of questioning Biden’s mental acuity.
Bruce Haynes, a former Republican strategist, said Biden would be more disciplined, even if only by default, projecting confidence in the 77-year-old’s ability to handle the pressures of the White House. “Given his penchant for gaffes and the need for all political figures to project stability in an uncertain time, this creates an advantage for his team,” explained Haynes, global chairman of public affairs at Sard Verbinnen & Co. in Washington.
Earlier this week, Biden, Trump, and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who is still running in the Democratic presidential primary, canceled a series of campaign events. CNN, host of Sunday’s Democratic debate, scrapped plans for a live studio audience and then decided to move the Biden-Sanders faceoff from Phoenix to its studios in Washington, D.C., to avoid unnecessary travel.
Biden has scheduled “virtual” events in Chicago and Miami. On Thursday, he delivered scripted remarks in Wilmington, Delaware, where he lives, discussing his agenda for combating the coronavirus.
If nothing else, the reduction in public events is providing Biden with the space to beef up his undermanned organization and better compete with a Trump campaign that ramped up last year.
“Going virtual gives his campaign a chance to recalibrate and focus his messaging,” said Ed Espinoza, a Democratic operative in Austin, Texas. “For a candidate like Biden, that can be very helpful.”
There could be an additional, short-term side benefit for Biden. The forced virtual campaign could compel Sanders to drop out of the Democratic primary sooner than he might prefer.
Sanders’s strength has been in the size of his crowds and the energy his supporters bring to the campaign. In that way, the 78-year-old socialist is similar to Trump. Without the ability to hold raucous campaign events, Sanders is ill-positioned to put Biden on the defensive and mount an improbable comeback.
