In order to maintain sanity during the coronavirus lockdowns, many people take daily walks or get in some exercise outside. For Joe Biden, his first trip beyond his Delaware home’s property line in eight days was in Pennsylvania for some light campaigning.
The 75-minute drive from the former vice president’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, marked his second trip to the state this month. Although the location of his campaign event, a heavily pro-Trump congressional district in a state the president won in 2016, was surely deliberate, the focus on intimate conversations with local voters contrasts with President Trump’s desire to continue holding large rallies.
The reason for Biden’s cautious approach to the campaign trail is officially out of concern for his health and that of his staff. And although many public health experts have been critical of Trump’s insistence on holding large indoor gatherings, a primary motivator is likely the obvious: staying in his basement is working just fine for Biden.
Since the coronavirus outbreak and the death of George Floyd, Biden has extended his lead over Trump in numerous polls. Although the race remains tighter in swing states, some national surveys of voters have Biden ahead of Trump by as much as 10 points or more.
A new poll from the New York Times and Siena College released Wednesday found 36% of voters say they currently back Trump, with 50% saying they’ll vote for Biden.
His remarks on Thursday, delivered to just a handful of masked and socially-distanced staffers and reporters, felt less like a campaign rally and more like an address to the country. There were no pauses for applause nor a sea of sign-waving supporters. Instead, Biden addressed a mostly empty room as he tore into the Trump administration’s plans to overturn Obamacare in court.
“If he succeeds, more than 23 million Americans will lose their coverage overnight, including over a million Pennsylvanians,” Biden said. “Insurers could once again discriminate or deny services or drop coverage from people living with pre-existing conditions like asthma, diabetes, or cancer.”
Biden, President Barack Obama’s vice president for two terms after 36 years as a Delaware senator, then previewed a likely message for the fall campaign.
“They would live their lives caught in a vise between Donald Trump’s twin legacies: his failure to protect the American people from the coronavirus, and his heartless crusade to take health care protections away from American families,” Biden said.
Though there was no crowd, Biden’s remarks on Thursday engaged more with voters than the typical digital campaign stops Biden has made as of late. Biden spoke of Pennsylvanians who benefited from Obamacare in what was one of his more policy-oriented speeches since he became the presumptive Democratic nominee. He also touted his healthcare plan and said his team would be releasing a specific outline for transitioning the current system to one with a public option.
“To fix the economy, we have to get control over the virus,” Biden said. “He’s like a child who can’t believe this has happened to him, all his whining and self-pity.”
Biden also called on Americans to wear masks and maintain social distancing, saying the public can’t rely on the White House’s advice to end the pandemic.
“The president wants us to believe there’s a choice between the economy and public health. Amazingly, he still hasn’t grasped the most basic fact of this crisis: To fix the economy, we have to get control over the virus,” he said. “He’s like a child who can’t believe this has happened to him, all his whining and self-pity. This pandemic didn’t happen to him, it happened to all of us, and his job isn’t to whine about it, but his job is to do something about it — to lead.”
