Biden plans to stay home, run virtually
Joe Biden has no foreseeable plans to resume in-person campaigning amid a pandemic that is testing whether a national presidential election can be won by a candidate communicating almost entirely from home.
The virtual campaign Mr. Biden is waging from Wilmington, Del., is a stark contrast with President Donald Trump, who is planning travel despite warnings from public health experts about the spread of the coronavirus.
It also intensifies the spotlight on how Mr. Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, will manage his campaign, with some in his party fretting his still-developing approach isn’t reaching enough voters.
For now, Mr. Biden and his aides are brushing back hand-wringing from Democrats and mockery from Republicans who argue the 77year-old is “hiding in his basement.”
Campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said voters don’t care where he is filming from.
“What they care about is what he’s saying and how we connect with them,” she said
Mr. Biden was more concise in assessing the situation on Tuesday.
“The idea that somehow we are being hurt by my keeping to the rules and following the instructions that (have) been put forward by doctors is absolutely bizarre,” he told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Ms. O’Malley Dillon took the helm of Mr. Biden’s campaign in mid-March, just as coronavirus shutdowns commenced. She recently beefed up the campaign’s digital and finance teams and said she’ll unveil battleground state leadership in coming weeks.
She also pointed to budding “partnerships” that include the national party’s battleground state program.
But those moves haven’t prevented critiques from prominent Democrats, including the architects of President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, who question Mr. Biden’s digital savvy and capacity to build the national vote-by-mail effort that might be necessary to win during a pandemic.