Biden-Trump rematch set to start
From primary races to court cases, key events fill calendar
President Joe Biden’s advisers are eager for the coming general-election fight and counting on voters to start paying more attention to former President Donald Trump, with the president himself even proposing and dashing off videos to ridicule the things his Republican rival says.
Trump is relishing the chance to contrast himself with Biden, as he did along the Texas-Mexico border last week, and trusting that Biden has the tougher job: convincing voters that their views of how the country is doing are wrong.
With Trump expected to rack up big wins on Super Tuesday and Biden preparing to deliver his State of the Union address Thursday, this week is expected to clarify the coming choice for an American public that in many ways remains in disbelief that 2024 is headed toward a 2020 rematch.
The Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling Monday keeping Trump on the ballot — some states sought to bar him for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol — kicked off a critical period that both campaigns see setting the tone and defining the early contours of the presidential campaign. By most accounts, Biden begins behind.
A New York Times/Siena College survey over the weekend showed Trump ahead 48% to 43% among registered voters. Biden is
hampered by widespread concerns about his age and his handling of the job, fractures in the Democratic coalition over Israel and a general sourness about the state of the nation.
But Biden also enters the expected general election contest with a number of key structural advantages, including a sizable financial edge and a lack of distractions on the scale of Trump’s four criminal trials.
Quentin Fulks, Biden’s principal deputy campaign manager, said the campaign had been preparing for a week that will functionally serve as “the kickoff to the general election.”
“The problem that we’ve
been facing is that a number of people are telling us that they’re not aware that this is a choice between Joe Biden and Donald Trump,” Fulks said. “March is going to be our time to make that choice crystal clear.”
The month begins with Super Tuesday and is set to end with jury selection in Trump’s first criminal trial, in New York, for hushmoney payments made secretly to porn performer Stormy Daniels in the 2016 campaign. In between, Trump is expected to effectively clinch the nomination and complete a takeover that will give him operational control of the Republican National Committee.
Trump, however, does have legal problems.
His team was elated last week when the U.S. Supreme Court laid out a timeline for hearing Trump’s claim of immunity from prosecution for his actions after his 2020 election loss to try to stay in power. The Supreme Court’s schedule pushes Trump’s federal trial until late summer at the earliest.
Nikki Haley is still running in the Republican primary, but polls predict a wipeout on Super Tuesday, with 15 states in play. Trump’s team believes he could surpass a majority of delegates and secure the nomination as early as March 12. On Friday, the
RNC is meeting in Texas and is expected to ratify Trump’s new pick to lead the party, Michael Whatley.
The Biden team has long circled Thursday’s State of the Union address as a pivot point, knowing it will be the president’s largest audience most likely until the summer convention and a chance to sell a skeptical American public on his accomplishments and fill in a secondterm agenda.
After the speech, Fulks said, the Biden campaign will unleash a “show of force,” with Biden’s first two stops announced as events in Atlanta and Philadelphia.
Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and first lady Jill Biden are expected to fan out on the campaign trail. One sign of the Biden campaign’s early edge: It is planning, along with the party, to open 31 general-election offices in the next 30 days in the key battleground of Wisconsin alone.
Trump has yet to announce any general-election staff in the state.
The first lady’s appearance Saturday in downtown Tucson, Arizona, offered a warning sign of the protests likely to greet the administration’s leading figures on the trail. Her “Women for Biden” event was interrupted four times in 15 minutes by dozens of pro-Palestinian ralliers who object to her husband’s support for Israel in the Israel-Hamas war.
Trump had his own presidential-style photo op at the border at the same time as Biden’s official visit. Trump’s trip was announced days before Biden’s. In two Texas border cities, both men chatted with law enforcement officers, Biden indoors, Trump outside overlooking the Rio Grande — and Trump’s team pronounced itself pleased with the result.
One concern Trump’s allies have had for months is being outraised — and therefore outspent — by the Biden campaign, the Democratic Party and allied groups. The main super political action committee aligned with Biden has already announced a $250 million television and digital ad reservation beginning in August. Trump’s super PAC had less than $20 million on hand entering February and was refunding $5 million each month to an account paying Trump’s mammoth legal fees.