EXCLUSIVE: Republicans are welcoming President Biden to the campaign trail, saying it is “great news” and predicting his involvement could backfire ahead of November’s midterm elections, while Democrats are wishing the GOP “the best of luck” as they pitch plans that Democrats say could raise taxes.
A Biden adviser told Fox News Thursday that the president is ramping up for the midterm elections—rolling out endorsements for Democrats, hitting the campaign trail for fundraisers, underscoring his agenda, and working to “sharpen the contrast” between his administration and congressional Republicans.
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“Expect more POTUS,” the adviser told Fox News.
The adviser told Fox News that Americans will begin to see “more travel” from the president. The adviser cited as examples Biden’s recent trips to Iowa; his trip to North Carolina; and his travel to Portland and Seattle where he discussed the benefits of the bipartisan infrastructure law and his administration’s efforts, and the need, to lower prescription drug costs.
President Joe Biden speaks at Business Roundtable’s CEO quarterly meeting
(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
“Elections are about choices,” the adviser told Fox News. “You have President Biden and congressional Democrats who understand what people are going through and are working every day to bring down costs for the American people, and you have Republicans who continue to stand in the way of that.”
But Republicans are ready—saying the Biden administration’s agenda and the current state of the nation will further attract voters to GOP candidates as they try to regain the majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate in November.
“The burden of Biden hitting the campaign trail is a reminder to voters everywhere of the lengthy list of Democrat failures,” Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Ronna McDaniel told Fox News. “Democrats have backed Biden’s agenda of rising costs, higher taxes, open borders, violent crime, and chaos abroad.”
She added: “The reality for Democrats up and down the ballot is they are tied to Joe Biden’s failures – and voters will hold them responsible in November.”
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McDaniel said there is a “clear choice” in November, saying Republican leadership in states are delivering “jobs, opportunity and prosperity.”
Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel speaks with Fox News at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting, in Las Vegas, Nevada on Nov. 5, 2021
(Fox News )
“As a result of our positive message contrasted with Biden’s failures, Republicans up and down the ballot are making inroads in communities across the country,” McDaniel said, adding that the RNC is “investing earlier than ever in a data-driven ground game to reach voters and expose Biden’s disastrous agenda.”
“Lucky for Republicans, the Biden Failure Tour will only showcase his failures even further,” McDaniel said.
An RNC official told Fox News that Republicans plan to highlight the president’s approval ratings, specifically on the economy and on immigration.
On Thursday, the Commerce Department announced that the U.S. economy shrank 1.4% at the beginning of 2022 — marking the worst quarter in two years. Gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the economy, shrank by 1.4% on an annualized basis in the three-month period from January through March.
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And inflation numbers released earlier this month revealed a new four-decade high in March as Russia’s war on Ukraine fueled rapid price gains for oil and gas that wiped out the benefits of rising wages for most Americans.
But the Biden adviser touted job creation.
“We have delivered for the American people,” the adviser said, noting the rise in vaccinations and the economy creating over 8 million jobs since January 2021.
House Republican Caucus Chair Elise Stefanik speaks with Fox News Digital in Ponte Vedra, Fla.
(Fox News)
The Labor Department said in its monthly report that payrolls in March rose by 431,000, slightly missing the 480,000 jobs forecast by Refinitiv economists. The unemployment rate fell to 3.6%, the lowest level since February 2020.
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Millions of workers are seeing the largest pay gains in years, but many of those gains have been eroded, however, by the hottest inflation in nearly 40 years.
House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., also weighed in after the news that Biden will soon ramp up his involvement in the midterms.
“I welcome Joe Biden hitting the campaign trail for House Democrats and running on their record of creating the worst inflation in over 40 years, historic gas prices, an historic border crisis, and a world in chaos,” Stefanik told Fox News. “Americans can’t afford to live another second in an America controlled by Biden and House Democrats.”
She added: “Any House Democrat up for re-election who thinks Biden will be their life raft this November should start updating their LinkedIn profile today.”
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And a senior GOP aide told Fox News it is actually “great news for Republicans that the president wants to hit the campaign trail, as the American people are fed up with his failed policies.”
“Do vulnerable Democrats want him anywhere near their district or state?” The aide said. “As we are already seeing with Biden’s disastrous economic and Border policies, Democrats are trying to run away from Biden’s agenda as fast as they can–and Biden hitting the trail would only make that tougher for them.”
But the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is casting Republican predictions aside.
“Voters are about to hear quite a bit about the Senate Republican plan to sunset Social Security and Medicare and raise taxes on over half of Americans while protecting their tax giveaways to corporations and the wealthiest Americans,” Ammar Moussa, DNC spokesman and rapid response director, told Fox News. “At a time when President Biden and Democrats are working to lower costs, we wish Republicans the best of luck having to explain to voters why they plan to do the complete opposite.”
Moussa was referring to a tax plan rolled out by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., which the adviser said would “increase taxes on millions of middle class Americans and would phase out social security and Medicare,” to which Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., shut down.
The Biden adviser told Fox News the president is “laser-focused” on working to lower prices, and during his time on the campaign trail, will focus his remarks on what he is now doing to lower prices amid record-high inflation in the United States.
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As for Democrats, the adviser told Fox News that “frontlines and Senate candidates are running from a strong position.”
“They have good fundraising and are polling well,” the adviser said. “And Democrats are aligned on the issues we want to talk about and very clear about the choice that voters have.”
Democratic National Committee Chairman Jamie Harrison gives the introduction speech for U.S. President Joe Biden at the DNC Winter Meeting at the Washington Hilton Hotel on March 10, 2022.
(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The Democratic National Committee brought in $16.5 million in March, and raised a total of $42 million for the first quarter. In contrast, the Republican National Committee raked in $17.6 million in elections last month, bringing the total fundraising for the first quarter for the RNC to $47 million. Democrats retain a cash-on-hand advantage.
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The GOP needs a net gain of just one seat to recapture the majority in the 100-member Senate they lost in 2021. And Republicans need a net gain of five seats in the 435-member House of Representatives to win back the majority the Democrats captured in the 2018 midterms.
“Other thing to remember is that it’s only April,” the Biden adviser told Fox News. “We have a few months before voters really start tuning into the midterms.”
