Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe told a video conference meeting with Democrats that Joe Biden should keep campaigning from his basement, where he has been remotely during the coronavirus pandemic.
McAuliffe made the remarks over the weekend during a “monthly breakfast” meeting of the Norfolk City Democratic Committee, according to Fox News, which obtained audio of the call.
“People say all the time, ‘Oh, we got to get the vice president out of the basement,’” the former Democratic governor said during the Zoom call. “He’s fine in the basement. Two people see him a day: his two body people. That’s it. Let Trump keep doing what Trump’s doing.”
“It’s hard for the vice president to break through,” McAuliffe said. “You’ve got the COVID crisis. He’s not a governor, doesn’t have the National Guard. He’s not the president, doesn’t have the briefing room. He needs to come out strategically. And when he says something like he did on race relations two days ago, it needs to have a big impact — thoughtful, and that’s what we’re preferring that he actually do at the time.”
McAuliffe noted that Biden has been speaking with two or three governors per day and doing roundtable Zoom calls.
“A lot of it’s being done in those six battleground states that we have going forward,” he added.
President Trump has mocked Biden for remaining indoors and not touring the country during the health crisis. Last month, the president said he would “love to see him get out of the basement so he can speak” and offered his Democratic rival a device that can conduct rapid coronavirus testing.
Also last month, David Axelrod, Barack Obama’s senior strategist, and David Plouffe, Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, said in an op-ed that Biden’s speeches from his basement “won’t cut it.”
Trump reportedly plans to restart his “Make America Great Again” rallies in the next two weeks as the country continues to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic.
