Biden campaign plans to expand substantially
Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, which has faced criticism from some Democrats worried about his team’s general election readiness, is planning a substantial expansion of its operation and eyeing an ambitious battleground map even as the question of when Biden will resume in-person campaigning remains unclear.
In an hourlong briefing with reporters Friday, senior campaign officials pledged to have “over 600 organizing staff responsible for battleground states” in place by next month as they pursue an “expanded map” with Arizona at the “top of the list” of new opportunities. They also said they had doubled the size of the digital team, “and it is growing,” and that they planned to implement a new livestreaming platform as they navigate the challenges of campaigning virtually during the coronavirus crisis.
The campaign, which is seeking to cast the election as a referendum on President Donald Trump, expects traditional, on-the-ground organizing to take place sometime this year, said Biden’s campaign manager, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon. But when that begins — or when Biden leaves his Wilmington, Delaware, home to campaign — will be determined by public health recommendations, she said.
“The most important thing for us and for the campaign is public safety and the safety of the vice president, the people around him, the staff, the press corps, the Secret Service,” O’Malley Dillon said, noting the current stay-athome order in Delaware. “We will travel physically to places when the time is right, driven by the experts and the guidelines that come and not a day before.”
But, she stressed, “I truly believe voters, our volunteers, our activists, our supporters, get as much on hearing from the VP and connecting with him in a virtual setting now as they would if he was out in person. So I really feel like we’re doing the business of campaigning in an aggressive way.”
Yet news of the campaign expansion comes as some Democrats have expressed anxiety about Biden’s visibility and the campaign’s agility, headed into a general election in which Trump has an enormous cash advantage and the bully pulpit of the presidency. The Biden campaign, which is now fundraising with the Democratic National Committee, has $103 million in cash on hand, according to a slide show that accompanied the campaign presentation. The Trump campaign announced this week that, in conjunction with Republican fundraising committees, it had $255 million on hand.
Some Democrats have also been dismayed by the poor quality of Biden’s online appearances, citing the glitches that have marred some of his livestreams, and have urged him to significantly upgrade his digital operation and to find ways to drive a forward-looking agenda.
O’Malley Dillon and Mike Donilon, the Biden campaign chief strategist, argued that for all of the hand-wringing about tactics, Biden continues to lead in many polls because he cuts strong positive contrasts with Trump on matters from empathy to governing style. The president also faces a historically challenging environment amid disapproval of his handling of a pandemic that is killing tens of thousands of Americans and leaving millions unemployed.
O’Malley Dillon also sketched out the Biden campaign’s view of the battleground map, echoing the candidate, who privately told supporters at a virtual meeting of his finance committee Thursday that he expected a major expansion of the playing field, according to two participants.
She indicated that the campaign sees Arizona, Texas and Georgia as being in play. She is particularly “bullish,” she said, on Arizona, a traditionally red state. An accompanying slide described the Biden strategy in Arizona as a mix of persuading Romney-Clinton voters and others who have moved toward the Democratic Party recently, as well as increasing turnout among Latino voters and voters under 30.
She also said that the campaign intended to roll out a new website.
A night earlier, Biden again addressed the biggest controversy his campaign has faced in the general election to date, saying that he did not remember Tara Reade, the woman who has accused him of sexual assault, and adding that Americans “probably shouldn’t vote for me” if they believe the accusation, which he has strenuously denied.
“I think they should vote their heart,” he said on MSNBC, asked about his message to voters who had been inclined to support him but believed the Reade allegation. “I wouldn’t vote for me if I believed Tara Reade.”
Reade, a former Senate aide, has said that Biden assaulted her in 1993. In the interview Thursday night, Biden said that women’s claims of assault should be taken seriously but should also be vetted, as he sharpened his questioning of Reade’s accusation.
“Look at Tara Reade’s story,” he said. “It changes considerably. But I don’t want to question her motive.”
On Friday, Kate Bedingfield, a deputy campaign manager, was asked whether the Biden camp believed that Trump or his campaign were linked to Reade’s allegation. “No,” she replied, saying the campaign was not questioning her motive.