Joe Biden spends most of his time picking apart President Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, but his campaign has quietly launched a new offensive against an unsuspecting target: Mike Pence.
Since June 1, the Biden campaign has issued 19 statements directed toward or including the vice president. On Thursday alone, the Biden campaign sent two press releases attacking him, with one singling out his trip to Tampa, Florida, to meet with Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The other highlighted a column from liberal journalist EJ Montini in an Arizona newspaper, a state the Biden campaign is hoping to flip to the Democratic column in November.
“Here was Vice President Mike Pence in Arizona on Wednesday, a day when the state set new records for COVID-19 cases, 4,878, as well as deaths, 88, bringing Arizona’s totals to more than 84,000 cases and 1,720 known deaths, praising Gov. Doug Ducey for his leadership,” wrote Montini. “If, as Pence said, Arizona has seamlessly partnered with the Trump administration, then we are proof positive that the White House Coronavirus Task Force is totally incompetent. If not criminally negligent.”
The continued swipes at Pence come as he kicks off his “Faith in America” rally tour throughout swing states, which began in late June. The campaign stops come as the president has begun seeing his support from white evangelicals drop precipitously.
Trump’s support with those Christian voters sits at 72%, down 6 points from a similar poll in April. The share of evangelicals who say they “strongly approve” of the job he’s doing, specifically in the areas of the coronavirus pandemic and the protests following the death of George Floyd, is also beginning to tank, from 67% to 59%.
“Most VPs find themselves in touchy situations on the campaign trail. This goes doubly for Pence. As head of the COVID-19 task force, Pence needs to deliver the unvarnished truth to the American people, but as the president’s surrogate on the campaign trail, he needs to follow Trump’s playbook and highlight the positive,” said vice presidential scholar Aaron Mannes.
“Any smart opposition candidate would take advantage of this contradiction. Also, on the campaign trail, Pence has been at events which did not practice safe social distancing, making the vice president an even bigger target,” said Mannes, whose Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Maryland was “The Evolving National Security Role of the Vice President.”
Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the Biden campaign has consistently needled Pence for his role as head of the presidential coronavirus task force. In April, a Biden spokeswoman called Pence’s job as doing “damage control” for Trump.
The focus on Pence from Team Biden remains peculiar when contrasted to the last several election cycles. Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, remained a wallflower for most of that race. In 2012, while Biden played attack dog against Mitt Romney, the GOP made that election a referendum on President Barack Obama personally and not particularly his No. 2.
“The vice president’s role is determined by the president, and the current president is idiosyncratic in his approach to most traditional presidential roles,” Mannes said. “Some of these VPs made important contributions in office to the success of their administration, and the best way to get reelected is for the president to be successful.”
