After months of political jokes about him hiding in his basement, Joe Biden looks set to join President Trump in returning to the campaign trail in September.
“I’m a tactile politician. I really miss being able to, you know, grab hands, shake hands, you can’t do that now. But I can, in fact, appear beyond virtually, in person, in many of these places. That’s what you’re going to be seeing after Labor Day,” the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee said Thursday.
Biden, the two-term vice president, listed Arizona, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin as likely destinations during a fundraiser hosted by the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. But he promised that any plans would adhere to local and state rules “about how many people can, in fact, assemble.”
“We’re going to do it in a way that is totally consistent with being responsible, unlike what this guy’s doing,” he said, referring to Trump’s nomination acceptance speech Thursday at the White House.
Citing Delaware public health guidance, Biden has been stuck mostly in his home state, holding digital events and giving interviews from his estate since March because of the coronavirus pandemic. He’s supplemented that schedule with the odd trip across the border to Pennsylvania, as well as making in-person appearances in Texas and Washington, D.C., for the funerals of George Floyd and civil rights icon Georgia Rep. John Lewis.
The scaled-back Democratic convention activities, for instance, were also moved from Milwaukee to Delaware, with Biden delivering his own acceptance address from Wilmington’s Chase Center.
The Biden campaign’s decision will be welcomed by Trump’s camp. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, much of Trump’s strategy was based on pointing out Biden’s mistakes in his unscripted interactions with voters and reporters.
