PENNSYLVANIA — President Joe Biden commenced the first of four trips to Pennsylvania in the next couple of days with a complete turnaround from his party’s “defund the police” mantra to a “fund the police” one, along with a pledge to ban assault-style weapons in the country. He also doubled down on denigrating people who vote Trump as being far-right.
Then he went really off script.
“He used to go down in the East Side, what they call the bucket. Highest crime rate in the country. There’s a place where I was the only white guy that worked as a lifeguard down in that area, on the East side. And, you know, you could always tell where the best basketball in the state is, where the best basketball in the city is. It’s where everybody shows up,” said Biden to a somewhat uncomfortable but supportive crowd in Wilkes-Barre.
Then he started talking about gun ownership, saying, “You know what the Mexicans, Mexico, which has real problems causing us real problems? You know what their biggest complaint is? Can’t we stop the gun trafficking across the southern border, into Mexico?”
Biden — who will go on to do three more appearances in Pennsylvania, concluding with the Labor Day parade in Pittsburgh on Monday — also offered his support for his party’s Senate candidate, John Fetterman. Fetterman, though, did not even attend the event, and Biden seemed confused about what offices he and gubernatorial nominee Josh Shapiro were running for.
“Please, please elect [Shapiro, the sitting attorney general] to the Senate. Elect that big ol’ boy [Fetterman, the sitting lieutenant governor] to be senator,” said Biden as he concluded his speech.
Some Democrats in the state, who admit they would rather dance on hot coals than vote Republican, say Biden can get away with his verbal stumbles because he has been that way all of his career. Still, one can only imagine Fetterman wishes he’d just be anywhere but here.
Currently, Fetterman leads Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz in the polls, with the RealClearPolitics average having the race at plus 7 for Fetterman and the latest poll by Emerson having Fetterman now down to plus 5 over the heart surgeon. The averaged RealClearPolitics polling began in June when Oz had just emerged from a bruising primary contest with businessman David McCormick that had deeply, negatively harmed his approval ratings.
Fetterman suffered a stroke days before the May primary; since then, he has not resumed his duties in Harrisburg and took most of the summer off to recover from the effects of the stroke.
Fetterman has not taken any questions from the press outside of a closed caption phone conversation with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and a text exchange with me. He has given three speeches in the past two weeks: an 11-minute speech in Erie, a four-minute one in Pittsburgh, and a seven-minute speech in Venango County.
Each appearance shows that the lieutenant governor’s speech is halting and that he struggles with finding his words. Nonetheless, no update from his doctor has been given since June, when his cardiologist issued a statement that Fetterman’s health problems were a direct result of him not following his orders several years ago.
Also, the political editor at CBS affiliate KDKA News, Jon Delano, in Pittsburgh, told the Oz campaign Tuesday evening that Fetterman informed him he would not be participating in the Sept. 6 debate in Pittsburgh.
Still, Fetterman has garnered a significant amount of news coverage from national news organizations — who often skip over a biography that includes his parents paying his salary for 13 years until he took his current job in 2019, that the town he served as mayor isn’t actually doing very well, or that he pulled a shotgun on a black jogger when he heard gunshots in his neighborhood.
On social media, he has also become a very effective human meme machine, at least for his progressive following and the reporters who cover him, who tweets endlessly about vegetables, New Jersey, a doctored Oz sign, and the legalization of marijuana, all while using numerous profanities.
On the latter of all of the issues important in the race, Fetterman chose the decriminalization of marijuana as the one thing he called on Biden to change through executive action when he is in the state next week.
It is unclear where Fetterman stands on issues that are top of mind for voters: inflation, gas prices, and crime. He has, though, been vocal about abortion access, which has emerged as a concern after the Supreme Court Dobbs decision came out this summer. This, even though the Dobbs decision has no impact on the legality of abortion in Pennsylvania. Abortions are still legal here through the 23rd week of pregnancy and after that if the life or health of the mother is in danger.
Oz, for his part, started campaigning Tuesday in Allegheny County, after a large town hall the evening before in the eastern suburbs, then went to events in Blair, Lycoming, and Carbon counties, with the evening ending at midnight; he will be back on the road Wednesday morning beginning in Lancaster County.
G. Terry Madonna, political science professor at Millersville University, says Biden’s visits here, along with former President Donald Trump’s rally in Wilkes-Barre on Sept. 3, show how important Pennsylvania has become to both parties in winning this election, even if neither candidate wants their party’s top leader (Biden or Trump) muddying the waters.
“These visits tell you Pennsylvania is a pivotal battleground state for control of the United States Senate; there are a handful of states that are being watched very carefully, but it looks like Pennsylvania has become the state, the battleground state,” said Madonna.
Madonna said, while Fetterman enjoys a healthy lead, “That could certainly change as voters really start to pay attention to the issues that impact them like inflation, crime, immigration and even the student loan forgiveness executive order.”
While the abortion issue has energized some Democrats, Madonna said people generally vote based on their pocketbook and the impact on their community.
What neither man wants is the gaffes Biden committed today or the possible flame-throwing Trump will do next week in his first appearance since the FBI executed a search at Mar-a-Lago.
Fetterman is set to see Biden at the Labor Day parade in Pittsburgh this weekend. The two have not seen each other since a brief encounter when Biden was in the city the day a bridge collapsed.
