LONDONDERRY, New Hampshire — After a post-debate slump, Joe Biden is going on the offense against several top-tier challengers who aim to depose the former vice president from his front-runner perch.
Biden, in New Hampshire for two days over the weekend, began going on the offensive against his Democratic rivals vying for the right to challenge President Trump next year.
At a community event in Dover, a house party in Atkinson, and during a 20-minute media availability in Portsmouth, the primary race’s leading candidate criticized his rivals for pushing unrealistic climate change policies and touting the use of executive action. He also took issue with a healthcare proposal by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders that would effectively eliminate private insurance.
It’s an unusual campaign position for Biden, who spent his 36-year Senate career as a largely smiling, congenial figure who made friends across the aisle, even among conservative figures with whom he disagreed vehemently on public policy.
The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner‘s inquiries concerning whether the former vice president’s showing at the debates had rattled the operation, provoking the change. During the second night of the opening debate series, he was grilled by California Sen. Kamala Harris about his opposition to federally-mandated busing, a program rolled out in the 1960s and ’70s to encourage educational integration that personally affected Harris as a child growing up in northern California.
The new tactic comes after Biden foreshadowed a more aggressive campaign style by alluding to his team’s collection of opposition research “about other people’s pasts” during a post-debates interview with CNN.
But the former vice president’s rhetoric received mixed reviews from New Hampshire voters who gathered to hear him speak at Mack’s Apples in Londonderry.
Debbie Palumbo, 61, and partner Bill, 60, who are leaning toward a ticket showcasing Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, told the Washington Examiner they appreciated him “punching back.” “He should punch more,” Bill Palumbo, of Derry, said.
If he wants to woo undecided Democrats, however, he may need to rethink his approach, warned Kathryn Jones, 38, of Salem. “I don’t think it’s working for him. It didn’t sway us,” said the Sanders supporter, referring to her first-time prospective voter daughter Emma, 17.
Regardless, Biden’s popularity in New Hampshire endures. Mike McNeil, an Atkinson 60-year-old, told the Washington Examiner he respected the former vice president’s experience. Dominic Andrews, 26, of Portsmouth, said he aligned with his centrist positions.
Biden is still ahead of the Democratic pack nationwide. On average, he leads by 11 percentage points with 27.3% of the vote, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls. His closest competitors are Warren, Sanders, and Harris, who pull 16.3%, 14.8%, and 14.3% support respectively.
