Amid a flood of questions from Democrats about whether President Joe Biden would or will remain his party’s presidential candidate, former president Donald Trump has been unusually silent on the matter.
Trump, rarely one to back down from his opinions, hasn’t been entirely silent since last week’s debate, giving a handful of radio interviews and keeping up a steady stream of posts and videos on his social media platform Truth Social. But Trump has largely retreated, letting the Democratic Party dominate the debate over Biden’s political future in a sign of his favored opponent.
After months of relentless criticism of Biden, whom he deemed too physically and mentally weak to lead the country, the former president has settled for news coverage of Democrats’ doubts about their party’s leader, according to two advisers who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss strategy.
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His relative lack of public comment on the issue reflects to some extent his desire for Biden to stay in the race and his confidence that he can easily defeat the president in November, one of the advisers said.
A New York Times/Siena College poll conducted after the debate and released Wednesday found that some Republican voters agreed, with 28% of them saying Biden should remain the Democratic nominee, up from 21% in a poll conducted before the debate.
On Monday, Trump publicly rejected the idea that the president would be replaced on the Democratic ticket.
“If you listen to the professionals who do this stuff, they say it’s very difficult for anyone else to get into the race,” Trump said in an interview with Virginia talk radio host John Reid.
And echoing an argument Biden’s Democratic allies have long used to argue that he is best positioned to defeat the former president, Trump has also argued that polls have shown “Biden is doing better than the people they’re using to replace him.”
The day after the debate, he argued at a rally in Virginia that Biden fared better in direct confrontations with him than Vice President Kamala Harris, whom he said he would “love” to face, or Michelle Obama, the former first lady.
Two polls released Tuesday somewhat debunked that claim: A CNN poll found Harris ahead of Biden by 2 percentage points in a hypothetical matchup against Trump, though he still defeated her. And an Ipsos/Reuters poll found Obama — a potential longshot for Democrats, given that she has repeatedly said she has no interest in running — beating Trump, 50% to 39%, in a hypothetical matchup.
Trump appeared to relish mocking his rival in a crude video first reported by The Daily Beast on Wednesday and later shared by Trump. It was not clear who originally shot the clip or what day it was filmed. While golfing at his New Jersey estate, Trump referred to Biden as “that old, broken-down pile of shit” and suggested he would drop out of the race, according to video of his remarks.
If Biden were to step aside, Trump would lose two lines of attack that were central to his campaign. For years, he has attacked Biden as “sleepy,” posted videos of Biden’s stumbles, ridiculed his speech and performed caricatured impersonations of him, attacks he could not easily use against any other opponent.
And in recent months, Trump has tried to appeal to undecided voters by directly comparing his time in office to Biden’s, often in misleading terms. That message would be undermined if another candidate replaced Biden on the ticket.
A new opponent could present new political challenges. Trump could face a younger opponent who could appeal to voters who are concerned about the age of both candidates and are looking for fresh alternatives to two men who both had a shot at a term in the White House.
“I don’t think anyone on the Trump campaign has ever said they want Biden off the ballot,” said Corey Lewandowski, a longtime Trump adviser who is now an adviser to the Republican Party’s nominating convention. He added that the matchup of “two candidates that America both knows very well and have similar records is one that favors us very, very much.”
The Heritage Foundation, a large conservative group, is also exploring possible legal challenges in some states that could make it difficult to replace Biden if he withdraws.
Mike Howell, director of Heritage’s Oversight Project, said the group is eyeing key states like Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin, where the legislation could make it difficult to put another Democrat on the ballot.
In a statement Wednesday, Trump’s two campaign managers, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, said they were confident Trump could “beat any Democrat” in November. They accused Democrats now running against Biden of being hypocrites, saying “every single one of them has lied about Joe Biden’s cognitive state and supported his disastrous policies over the past four years.”
There are signs that some close to Trump are preparing more seriously for the remote possibility of a showdown with another Democratic candidate this fall. Trump’s campaign and Republican allies have stepped up attacks on Harris, a longtime target of the right.
In their statement Wednesday, Trump’s campaign managers called her “Cackling Copilot Kamala Harris,” ridiculing her mannerisms and directly linking her to Biden’s policies. During the debate, the campaign ran an ad suggesting that Biden was incapable of leading the country through a second term and warning that Harris was waiting in the wings to take over.
On Tuesday morning, Make America Great Again Inc., the main super political action committee supporting Trump’s presidential campaign, released a list of attacks on Harris, essentially claiming she is no better than Biden, particularly on immigration, an issue Trump has made central to his campaign.
On Wednesday, the House Republican Campaign Committee announced a new digital ad linking Harris to Biden’s border policies. “Vote Republican. Stop Kamala,” a title card at the end of the ad reads.
“Any good campaign looks at every possible eventuality,” Lewandowski said. “The campaign’s strategy doesn’t change, but it would be a dereliction of duty not to be prepared if Joe Biden drops out of the race.”
In the video clip at his golf club, however, Trump already saw that he had passed Biden and saw Harris as his likely opponent.
“That means we have Kamala,” Trump said. “I think she’s going to be better. She’s so bad. She’s so pathetic.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a staunch Trump ally, warned on social media about the potential changes in the 2024 race if Harris becomes the nominee.
“I believe the Trump campaign realizes that the 2024 race could very quickly shift dramatically from Biden’s capabilities to a battle for the heart and soul of the country,” Graham wrote on the social media platform X on Wednesday afternoon.
And if that scenario were to play out, Graham added, Republicans “would need to build on President Trump’s ability to expand our party’s demographic reach in 2024.”
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